Vietnam Airlines set for partial privatisation in November

HANOI, Sept 12 (AFP): Vietnam Airlines said it will be partially privatised in November, part of a long-delayed drive to sell off the communist country's mostly inefficient state-owned enterprises.
Around 25 per cent of the national carrier will be sold in an Initial Public Offering (IPO), the company said in a statement released late Thursday.
"Based on the equitisation plan approved by the Prime Minister, Vietnam Airlines will quickly implement steps to proceed with the IPO in late November 2014," it said.
Equitisation is the term Vietnam uses to refer to privatisation.
State media reported that 20 per cent of the shares will be sold to strategic investors, some three per cent to airline staff and the rest to the public.
The state will retain a 75 per cent controlling stake in the company, whose registered capital is roughly VND 14 trillion ($661 million), the statement added.
Vietnam first began modest State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) reforms in the 1980s and there has been talk of privatising Vietnam Airlines since at least the mid-1990s.
Prior attempts to sell off portions of the airline have been scuppered primarily by resistance from vested interests and a lack of political will.
At least one prior attempt was abandoned due to the global economic crisis in 2008.