HO CHI MINH CITY, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's biggest brewer Sabeco successfully sold here on Monday nearly 53.6 percent of its stake totaling 4.8 billion U.S. dollars to a local company.
On the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, 20,000 shares of Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (Sabeco) were sold to a man from Hanoi at a price of 320,500 Vietnamese dong (14.2 U.S. dollars) per share, and nearly 343.7 million shares were sold to Vietnam Beverage Company at a price of 320,000 Vietnamese dong (14.1 U.S. dollars) per share.
After Vietnam's biggest-ever stake auction on Monday, the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade owns only 36 percent of Sabeco stakes. Vietnam has equitized over 530 state-owned enterprises over the past five years, according to the ministry.
Sabeco is estimated to make after-tax profits of 4.9 trillion Vietnamese dong (216.8 million U.S. dollars), and net revenues of nearly 34.7 trillion Vietnamese dong (over 1.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017.
Vietnam Beverage was established in October 2017 with chartered capital of nearly 681.7 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 30.2 million U.S. dollars).
Thai brewer ThaiBev of Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi owns 49 percent of stakes of F&B Alliance Vietnam which owns 100 percent of stakes of Vietnam Beverage.
According to Vietnam's Securities Law, Vietnam Beverage is considered a local company, so it is not subject to the rule that foreign ownership in a Vietnamese enterprise is capped at 49 percent.
The Thai billionaire also owns stakes in Vietnam F&N Dairy Investments Company which owns over 19 percent of stakes of Vietnam's biggest dairy product maker Vinamilk.
