Ho Chi Minh City plans to equitize SJC - Vietnam's largest gold bar trader, and seven other state-owned firms in 2019, according to the government portal.
Illustrative photo.
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The city also approved transferring management of the wholly state-owned Ho Chi Minh City Lottery Company from Ho Chi Minh City Finance and Investment Company to the municipal People's Committee.
Meanwhile, the city is expected to ask the government to exclude Ho Chi Minh City Irrigation Management Company from the list of SOEs subject to equitizaton, while Saigon Water Corporation remains wholly state-owned.
Since 2012, SJC has been the only firm holding the exclusive rights in Vietnam for gold bullion production.
In 2017, the jewelry companies posted revenue of VND22.95 trillion (US$982.87 million) and pre-tax profit of VND85.4 billion (US$3.65 million).
In the first six months of 2018, equitization schemes of eight SOEs in Vietnam were approved with a total value of VND29.37 trillion (US$1.29 billion), lagging far behind the target of equitizing at least 85 SOEs by the end of this year.
The reason behind the delay, according to the Ministry of Finance, is the lack of efforts from ministries and provinces. Additionally, problems in finance, land and laborers from periods prior to equitization also hindered the process at targeted SOEs.
Nevertheless, Vietnam's effort to raise funds from the public-sector reforms is expected to triple in 2018 - 2020 compared to levels seen in the 2011 - 2017 period, according to Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), the largest brokerage house in the country.
Specifically, the total proceeds from initial public offerings (IPOs) and the share sales of SOEs in the next two years are expected to reach US$26.3 billion, 2.75 times higher than the funds raised for the whole period between 2011 and 2017.
