BIDV wants ACV strategic shareholder norms revised
BIDV wants ACV strategic shareholder norms revised
Bank for Investment and Development (BIDV) Chairman Tran Bac Ha has requested the Prime Minister for revision of norms on strategic shareholders of the Airports Corporation of Viet Nam (ACV).
The norms were issued by the transport ministry.
In a document sent to the PM after the bank asked for five per cent of the shares after the ACV's initial public offering on December 10, Ha said if the norms were not changed, the BIDV would not be able to meet the demand for involvement in the ACV's operations.
The transport ministry had issued a regulation that the ACV's strategic investors, which were financial institutions, would have to have an ownership capital of no less than US$5 billion on December 31, 2014, if they wanted a seat in the corporation's management board.
Ha said in the document that such a regulation ended opportunities for domestic financial institutions, but helped foreign ones as they would not have to compete with the country's banks during the process of selecting the strategic shareholders of the ACV.
No domestic bank has been able to meet the $5 billion ownership capital demand so far. The two commercial banks with the largest ownership capitals in Viet Nam were Vietinbank and BIDV, with $2.55 billion and $1.85 billion, respectively, the document said.
BIDV asked the PM to guide the transport ministry to reconsider and adjust the regulation on the equity amount to allow domestic financial institutions to compete with the foreign ones.
The BIDV chairman also said in case the commitments of the domestic and foreign financial institutions were not very different, the government should give priority to and select the domestic ones to help them.
Earlier, in a letter sent to Transport Minister Dinh La Thang, Ha said he hoped to become a strategic shareholder of the ACV by contributing about five per cent of the ACV's registered capital after equitisation.
BIDV has total assets valued at $35 billion, besides a long experience in the aviation industry as it has been a large shareholder of the Vietnam Aircraft Leasing Company.
In the equitisation plan, the ACV will offer more than 448 million shares, or 20 per cent of its registered capital, to strategic investors, five per cent is offered to its employees and normal investors while about 75 per cent will be owned by the state.
In its initial public offering on the HCM Stock Exchange on December 10, the ACV offloaded 77.8 million shares at VND14,300 (US$0.63) each, which was 3.47 per cent of the company's registered capital, equal to more than VND1.1 trillion.
After the IPO, BIDV and French Aeroport de Paris (ADP) contacted the ACV with investor offers. ADP wanted the whole 20 per cent of the shares.
