29/Apr/2009 Dau Tu Chung Khoan page 16
In order to ensure safety for operations of credit organisations, the draft law on credit organisations puts forward eight restrictions for credit supply.
Namely, credit organisations are not allowed to lend securities trading businesses where credit organisations hold a controlling stake, credit organisations are not allowed to grant credit mortgaged by shares of those credit organisations or their affiliates, credit organisations are not allowed to lend capital to be used for capital contribution into other credit organisations by receiving mortgages in shares of contributed credit organisations and commercial banks, branches of foreign banks are not allowed to offer loans for securities investment and trading.
Explaining the above restrictions, vice governor of the central bank Dang Thanh Binh said that credit organisations are not only lenders but also borrowers, hence, they should restrict lending activities for risky sectors such as securities, real estate, some derivative tools in order to ensure safety for credit organisations, the banking system and generally the whole economy, particularly depositors.
"Several years ago, banks had raced to offer loans to securities trading activities, saying that those loans had very high safety levels and this was a normal lending activity. All banks in the world provided loans to securities trading activities. However, the fact went against the expectations. If the central bank had no timely intervene, namely limiting securities lending amount at 3% of total outstanding loans, we would not know what would happen," said Binh. The world's economic crisis showed that many products that credit organisations have been providing are going out of the state control and are the reason for the global economic crisis, added Binh.
Although agreeing that banking activities, particularly credit segment, are sensitive, significantly impact socio-economic activities, many banks fail to support for the above regulations.
According to lawyer Truong Thanh Duc, manager in charge of the legal division of Bao Viet Joint Stock Bank, discriminating different kinds of shares for mortgages is illogical because in fact although the stock market falls into the worst period of the crisis, bank shares remain safest shares. In order to ensure equality, credit organisations should be banned from receiving mortgages for all kinds of shares, said Duc.
Duc also worried over the regulation that "credit organisations are not allowed to operate any business activities other than banking activities and business activities specified in licenses issued by the central bank."
With such a regulation, if a credit organisation buy government bonds, the central bank's inspector or the State Securities Commission can fine that credit organisation for administrative violations because investing into the government bonds can also be illegal," said Duc.
With the latest draft law on credit organisation, Lai Thi May, chief of the legal department of Maritime Bank, worried that many commercial banks may be given administrative fines without knowing which regulation in the law they violate. "The Law on Credit Organisations allows commercial banks to underwrite securities issuance, securities self-deal including trading shares, corporate bonds, securities brokering and others via subsidiaries, associates. But without specific regulations, credit organisations may be fined any time," said May. In fact, Maritime Bank had ever invested into corporate bonds and committed to sell them at certain time. However, when investigating, the central bank said that this was a long-term investment and required risk provisioning fund.
"We did not know where this regulation came from. When asking the central bank, it presented an official letter that was not a legal statute and in fact, no credit organisation received this official letter," said May.
According to the draft law on credit organisations, only after getting approval from the central bank, can commercial banks be allowed to trade, supply forex services, gold, forex rate derivative tools, currency, other financial assets, transferable valuable papers. According to many commercial banks, this statute will restrict self-esteem and self responsibilities.
The law on credit organisations is a stormy law, according to Duong Thu Huong, general secretary of Bank Association. "Being a stormy law is because this law was built at the time when the financial-monetary crisis in Asia happened in 1997 and when this law was revised in 2008 and 2009, the global economic crisis that comes from the crisis of the monetary-financial crisis exists. Because this law was built and revised amidst the crisis time, the law on credit organisations sets many tough regulations. This makes representatives of commercial banks, who took part in building the law on credit organisations and instruction documents worried that the central bank would have to build instruction documents later. "The current law on credit organisations have many too tough regulations, restricting self-esteem of credit organisations. Although being aware that those regulations do not conform to the realistic situation, when building instruction documents, we do not how to instruct
those regulations so that they can conform to the reality," said Huong.
Second quarter GDP could reach 3.5-3.8pct, investment ministry predicts
Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam
Ministry of Planning and Investment's National Centre for Socio-Economic Information and Forecast predicted that the country's Q2 gross domestic product could reach 3.5-3.8%, up 0.4-0.7% against Q1.
The prediction was released in the April economic review and some macro-economic targets for Q2 and the whole year based on figure from the general Statistical Office.
Industrial production value of some goods items surged again in April. Especially, that of chemical fertiliser increased 10.6% month on month, cloth from synthetic fibre up 11.1%, glass growing 61.8%, liquefied gas soaring 33%.
During the first four months of 2009, the output of seafood reached 802,000 tonnes, a year-on-year rise of 8.8%, marking the highest level in many recent years. Meanwhile, total retail and service turnover was estimated at over 360 trillion dong, up 21.5% from 2008.
Le Dinh An, director of the information centre confirmed that the April export only brought in US$4.5 billion, down 15.3% from the previous month but the value of many export items grew sharply, particularly the export turnover of electronics increased by US$28 million, footwear up US$21 million, seafood up US$17 million, apparel jumping US$11 million. According to statistics, the consumption power of Vietnam's main importers including US, Europe and Japan remained sustainable.
Giving the analysis on the above performance, Le Dinh An forecasted that the whole year's GDP could gain 5%.
The most important motive leading to the Q2 GDP is thanks to the government's demand stimulating package. Different from the previous years, Vietnamese economy will be helped be brisker because total value of the interest rate subsidisation programme (Package 1) and the second package focusing on investments in irrigation and construction will reach up to US$8 billion.
State brewers put listing plans in limbo
Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam | CafeF
In 2009, the stock market is expecting the forthcoming listing of a series of big companies like Vietnam Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade (Vietcombank), Bao Viet Group, Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Vietinbank), Saigon Beer Alcohol and Beverages Corp (Sabeco), and Hanoi's Habeco.
Now Vietcombank was licensed in principle to list on STC while Bao Viet had drawn up listing plan within this year. However, some technical barriers pushed both of brewers to face difficulties as listing at this time for the fear of low stock prices.
In April 2009, Vietnam Association for Financial Investors (Vafi) directly proposed the industry and trade minister Vu Huy Hoang to compel state-owned brewers Sabeco and Habeco to go public as soon as possible.
According to the association, the listing of both brewers will create more commodities for the stock market. On the other hand, promoting the listing of Habeco and Sabeco is the optimal measure to upgrade the efficiency of managing state capital in joint stock companies and ensure the transparent finance.
Yet, as explained by Ministry of Industry and Trade, Sabeco and Habeco now have to face a lot of real disadvantages and technical obstacles. Particularly, pursuant to Section d Article 8 of Decree No 14/2007/ND-CP of January 19, 2007, detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Securities (Decree No 14), when listing on the securities trading centres, at least 100 majority shareholders must hold at least 20% of voting stake of that company. Thus, to list on the stock market, both companies will have to build up the plan of continuously selling state capital because the state now holds up to 81.7% in Habeco and 89.5% in Sabeco.
As for Habeco alone, the strategic shareholder Carlsberg now accounts for 16% of its chartered capital. In this case, Carlsberg will be not allowed to sell their Habeco shares if Habeco goes public because the share keeping time is not enough under the current regulations.
Notably, the stock market in general and prices of both companies' shares saw a too sharp reduction in recent time, meaning that the listing at this time could cause damages for their shareholders.
Therefore, for both companies, defining the floor price to list is very difficult to avoid damages for the state asset and negative impacts for the company's shareholders and employees if starting price is lower the preferential price for staffs, the ministry detailed. While the average VN Index only is equal to 30% of the start of 2007, the ministry said that the listing of Sabeco and Habeco at this time would difficultly reach expected succeed and could not meet benefits of the state and shareholders.
Over one-year ago (January 28), Saigon brewer (Sabeco) auctioned 128,257,000 shares via Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (STC) with total bidding volume of 78,373,000 shares at average winning price of 70,003 dong per share, only equalling to 61% of the offering volume.
After that (March 27), Habeco also auctioned 34,770,000 shares on the Hanoi Securities Trading Centre (HASTC) with total bidding volume of 4,377,900 shares or 12.6% of the offering. The winning price averaged at 50,015 dong per share. Recently, Habeco's shares were traded at 25,000 dong each on the informal stock market.
In the next time, the Ministry will continue cooperating with leader boards of both corporations to prepare necessary conditions and keep fast track of the stock market movements to select a suitable listing time.
Banks profit bolstered by gold business
Tin Tuc | Vietnam+
Closing the first quarter, most banks posted the good performance, of which tradition lending and the buoyant gold business contributed to high profits.
At Vietcombank's AGM on April 28, the bank's general director Nguyen Phuoc Thanh reported that in Jan-March, his firm earned total 1.3 trillion dong in profit respectively.
Previously, two leading joint stock banks of ACB and Sacombank also reported Q1 profit of 450 billion dong and 350 billion dong in turn, ABBank 87.7 billion dong, Maritime Bank 230 billion dong, a four fold increase against Q1 of 2008 while Military Bank's profit surged 1.7 times to 408 billion dong and LienVietBank gained 235 billion dong in profit.
In Q1 profit structure of banks, the earnings from credit activities accounted for a high contribution. According to Nguyen Phuoc Thanh, general director of Vietcombank, the earnings from credit made up 70% of its profit structure and the remaining 30% came from US dollar business.
Meanwhile, Sacombank's credit activities contributed 65-70% to the profit structure of first three months. Also, Sacombank earned about 100 billion dong from gold business, equalling to 30% of the total 2008 profit in gold business. According to the general director Tran Xuan Huy, profit from foreign currency and gold is only temporary. We [Sacombank] will upgrade infrastructure to increase earnings from services by 30% by 2010 and develop consumer credit products, which are to be sustainable profits for Sacombank.
Although the credit growth was still affected strongly by the economic recession which led to the sharp fall in capital demand, the government's economic stimulating package cut down the real lending rate to 6% per annum. With the attractive rate, many enterprises took bank loans whereby the lenders pushed up the credit growth.
Factually, in the first two months from the government's demand stimulating programme was launched, Sacombank had disbursed 8.070 trillion dong of soft loans along with developing individual lending products as from being allowed to carry out negotiated interest rate mechanism. Until the end of March, the outstanding loans of Sacombank totalled at 39.338 trillion dong, up 17% against the last year end.
A representative from Military Bank said that his firm is concentrating on promoting the interest rate subsidisation programme with total 4.190 trillion dong being disbursed. In 2009, the bank expects to reach a growth rate of 30-35% as for all financial targets and maintain the bad debt ratio at below 2%.
Central bank leaves key rate unchanged
Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam page 15
On April 29, State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) announced some key rates of the dong which are applied from May 1, 2009.
Accordingly, the Central Bank will continue keeping the current basic rate of the dong at 7% per annum. Thus, the re-financing interest rate as for credit institutions was retained at 7% pa, re-discount rate of 5% and the interbank's overdraft lending rate was fixed at 7.0% pa.
SCB pledges loans for agribusinesses
Nguoi Lao Dong
Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) pledged to provide one trillion dong of loans to the companies that are rice grinders and processors in three districts of Cai Be, Cai Lay and Chau Thanh of the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang according to the government's demand stimulating programme.
Under it, apart from supporting the lending rate of 4% pa, SCB will continue reducing 3-5% pa for the companies when they [borrowers] committed to transfer turnover to the accounts at SCB.
Also, the bank lends dong loans in line with US dollar interest rate of 0.5% pa, and set up a group of supplying information on the rice market.
Eximbank cuts US dollar lending rate for importers
Nguoi Lao Dong
Vietnam Import Export Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) has reduced the short-term lending rate for import companies.
Accordingly, the enterprises demanding to borrow US dollar to pay goods import will enjoy a new interest rate of 5% pa instead of the previous 6% pa of Eximbank. The lending rate of 5% pa will be applied on loans with terms of shorter 12 months.
Also, to help businesses to avoid forex rate risks, Eximbank launched the product "lending US dollar to support importers according to a sustainable forex rate, meaning that the bank will fix the selling price of US dollar at the disbursement time.
SeABank awarded 'prominent international payment' by CitiBank
Lao Dong Online
Southeastern Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) on April 29 was awarded the "the prominent international payment" prize from CitiBank.
The prize is granted to the banks reaching over 90% of standard ratios in international payment.
Last year the local bank's tunrover from international payment gained 6.664 trillion dong, a year-on-year growth of 64%.
Vietinbank, Generali to co-establish life insurance arm
Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam page 15
Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Vietinbank) and Italy's Generali Group signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in setting up a life insurance arm.
Selecting the Italian largest finance and insurance group, Generali to be the partner will help Vietinbank diversify sources of earnings, minimise risks in operation and business, promote advantages and step by step carry out its development strategy for future.
Pham Huy Hung, chair of Vietinbank said that following assignments would be finished soon to sign an official joint venture contract and inaugurate Life Insurance Joint Venture Co with Generali.
Bao Viet says will make IPO this year
Nguoi Lao Dong
Bao Viet Insurance Group (Bao Viet) passed the plan of listing on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (STC) within 2009.
After being equitised in 2007, Bao Viet had a chartered capital of six trillion dong. Last year the insurer posted a combined revenue of 11.808 trillion dong and after-tax profit of 529 billion dong, of which the revenue from insurance business accounted for 93%.
This year the figures are expected to be 9.717 trillion dong and 507 billion dong.
The current price of Bao Viet's shares on the informal stock market was 19,000 dong against the average winning price of 73,910 dong per share in the share auction held in June 2007.
Auto registration fee slashed to counter weak sales
Thanhniennews
The government Friday halved the automobile registration fee to 5-6 percent of the vehicle price in an effort to boost sales and help automakers cope with the economic slump.
The lower rate will be in effect until the end of this year.
For a vehicle with fewer than ten seats, registration will cost six percent of the price in Hanoi and five percent elsewhere.
Auto dealers in HCM City say they recorded more visits Friday but made few sales, possibly because it was still a holiday.
They pointed out that the cheaper registration in many cases would not offset the higher prices of many vehicles since March and early April.
The Toyota Innova G minivan went up by US$3,800 in April, so buyers will pay just $1,640 less for registration.
Similarly, to register a Chevrolet Captiva SUV, which rose by more than $5,150 last month, it will cost around $1,930.
According to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers' Association (VAMA), first quarter sales plunged 36 percent from the same period last year to 21,839 units as the economic slowdown hit demand.
Half of these were sold in March as buyers rushed to beat a steep hike in the luxury tax from April 1, the association said.
The General Statistical Office says it recorded an increase in car sales, which more than tripled to 4,300 units in March from 1,300 in January and should reach 4,500 in April.
The government has halved the value-added tax on a number of goods including fiber, cloth, garments, leather and footwear, paper and paper products, cement, tiles, and 125cc motorcycles or bigger, effective from Friday. The previous VAT rates on these items ranged from five to ten percent.
The government also knocked 30 percent off the corporate tax for the fourth quarter of 2008 for certain textile, garment and footwear firms.
All listed shares surge, VN Index jumps to 336.64 pts May 4
AtpVietnam
After a long holiday from April 30 to May 3, the stock market today marked a surprising return when the VN Index saw the allowable increase amplitude with 100% of listed shares surged in prices.
Some goods news that investors could be allowed to open many securities accounts, time for negotiated transactions could be shortened and others will help increase the market's transparency.
Meanwhile, initial statistics on the domestic economy in April started to be more optimistic thanks to the government's big efforts in preventing the economic decline. And most recently, the government continued offering the demand stimulating demand of US$8 billion.
After the final matching order phase, VN Index increased 15.01 pts or 4.67% from April 29 to 336.64 pts with total trade of over 12.88 million shares for 281.65 billion dong, down 50% in volume and 54% in value against the previous session.
Up to 174 among 181 listed stock codes saw a ceiling increase in prices and no code decreased.
The share codes falling in the ex-interest date today included GTA, TTP, VNS, OPC and TMC.
VNM jumped 4,000 dong to 89,000 dong per share, STB +1,000 to 22,000, SSI +1,900 to 39,900, PVD +3,000 to 72,000, DPM +1,800 to 38,300, and HAG +2,500 to 60,500 dong/share.
Leading the southern market in terms of trading volume during this session was VST with 1.11 million shares changing hands, PRUBF1 with 890,000 fund units, STB with 540,000 shares and HT2 with 460,000 shares being transferred.
Business, banking and stock market report May 4
* In Jan-March, Metallic Production and Trading Joint Stock Co (STC coded KKC) reached over 88.2 billion dong in revenue and a loss of 13.3 billion dong in after-tax profit, Mirae Fiber Joint Stock Co (HASTC listed KMF) with 20.4 billion dong in revenue and over 1.6 billion dong in after-tax profit, Lilama 45.3 Joint Stock Co (HASTC listed L43) with 54.1 billion dong and over three billion dong, Lilama 69.1 JSC (HASTC listed L61) with 69.1 billion dong and 2.6 billion dong, Lilama 69.2 JSC (HASTC listed L62) with 47 billion dong and 2.5 billion dong, Long An Book and School Equipment JSC (HASTC listed LBE) with 4.9 billion dong and 43.8 million dong, Ha Tay Pharmaceutical JSC (HASTC coded DHT) with 136.3 billion dong and 3 billion dong, Hacinco JSC (HASTC coded HSC) with 2.2 billion and 497 million dong, Ha Tinh Book and School Equipment JSC (HASTC listed HBE) with 2.9 billion and 58.6 million dong.
* Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (STC) announced that the registration deadline for Ha Tien 1 Cement Joint Stock Co (coded HT1) to issue more shares and pay the 2008 dividend is May 7, 2009. The cement maker will issue 22,607,520 shares to the existing shareholders with a ratio 100:26 (26 new shares for 100 shares held) at 13,000 dong/share. Also, the company will pay a 2008 dividend at 5.5% on May 27, 2009.
* Saigon Telecommunication and Technology Corp (SaigonTel) (coded SGT) has approved the plan of raising its chartered capital to 772.75 billion dong in 2009.
* Ba Ria Thermoelectricity JSC (coded BTP) reported gaining a turnover of 343 billion dong and after tax profit of 25 billion dong in Q1 of 2009.
* Viet Tien Garment Co (VTEC) earned 343 billion dong in Q1 revenue, increasing 28% against 2008, and an after tax profit of 15.7 billion dong.
* Bank for Investment and development of Vietnam (Bidv) Dien Bien Branch signed a credit agreement on May 2 to finance project of Nam He hydroelectric plant. The construction site is located in Muong Tung Commune, Muong Cha District with the project's total investment capital of 300 billion dong.
* Kinh Do Corp (coded KDC) recently announced its financial report for Q1 of 2009 with the Q1 after tax profit of 21.5 billion dong, a y-o-y reduction of 59%.
* Management board of Dung Quat oil refinery and PetroVietnam Transportation Corp (PVTrans) signed a contract for crude oil transportation for the factory.
* Bao Viet Insurance Group (Bao Viet) passed the plan of listing on Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (STC) within 2009. After being equitised in 2007, Bao Viet had a chartered capital of six trillion dong. Last year the insurer posted combined revenue of 11.808 trillion dong and after-tax profit of 529 billion dong, of which the revenue from insurance business accounted for 93%.
* Vietnam Import Export Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) has reduced the short-term lending rate for import companies. Accordingly, the enterprises demanding to borrow US dollar to pay goods import will enjoy a new interest rate of 5% pa instead of the previous 6% pa of Eximbank. The lending rate of 5% pa will be applied on loans with terms of shorter 12 months.
* Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) pledged to provide one trillion dong of loans to the companies that are rice grinders and processors in three districts of Cai Be, Cai Lay and Chau Thanh of the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang according to the government's demand stimulating programme.
* Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Vietinbank) and Italy's Generali Group signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in setting up a life insurance arm.
* Southeastern Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) on April 29 was awarded the "the prominent international payment" prize from CitiBank.
Ha Tien 1 cement maker to offer over 22.6m shares
Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam page 12
Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (STC) announced that the registration deadline for Ha Tien 1 Cement Joint Stock Co (coded HT1) to issue more shares and pay the 2008 dividend is May 7, 2009.
Accordingly, the cement maker will issue 22,607,520 shares to the existing shareholders with a ratio 100:26 (26 new shares for 100 shares held) at 13,000 dong/share. The time for shareholders to transfer the buying warrant is between May 21 and June 15, 2009. The time to register and bid for new shares is from May 21 to June 16, 2009.
Also, the company will pay a 2008 dividend at 5.5% on May 27, 2009.
HCM City Securities Depository Centre will suspend deposits for HT1 coded shares on May 6, 7 and 8, 2009.
Talisman Energy profit drops less than estimated
Thanhnien news
Talisman Energy Inc., the Canadian oil company that's spending US$1.1 billion to develop fields off the coast of Vietnam, said first-quarter profit fell less than analysts estimated on gains related to an asset sale.
Talisman boosted its semi-annual dividend 13%.
Net income declined 2.4% to C$455 million (US$377 million) from C$466 million, a year earlier, Calgary-based Talisman said Thursday in a statement. Per-share profit was unchanged at 45 cents. Excluding a gain of C$519 million from the sale of oil fields off the coast of Norway and other items, profit was C$303 million, or 30 cents a share. On that basis, the company was expected to earn 17 cents, the average of 11 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Holders of common stock as of June 5 will receive a payment of 11.25 cents on June 30. The company last increased its dividend to 10 cents in 2007.
Production gained 7% to the equivalent of 450,000 barrels of oil a day, Talisman said. Maintenance hampered North Sea output a year earlier. Two-thirds of the company's oil and natural-gas reserves are in North America and the North Sea.
"North Sea production was a little bit higher," said Chris Theal, an analyst at Tristone Capital Inc. in Calgary who rates Talisman a "top pick" and doesn't own the stock. "You're seeing costs come down, particularly in the North Sea and Scandinavia. Lower operating costs are very additive to the bottom line."
UK costs fall
Talisman said operating costs in the UK fell 27% due to production gains and improved efficiency.
"The first quarter exceeded our internal projections for production," Talisman Chief Executive Officer John Manzoni said in the statement. "As usual, production in the second and third quarters will be lower due to maintenance shutdowns."
Revenue after royalties fell 21% to C$1.58 billion from C$2 billion.
The company's outlook for production to average about 430,000 barrels a day remains valid, Manzoni said. Talisman is expanding exploration in Southeast Asia to help stem declines from existing fields.
PV Trans signs Dung Quat Oil refinery transport deal
01/May/2009 Lao Dong Online
The management board of Dung Quat oil refinery and PetroVietnam Transportation Corp (PVTrans) signed a contract for crude oil transportation for the factory.
The contract will last five years, which is broken into two phases. The first phase will be from the start of trial period to the date when the factory is handed over. The second phase will start from the date of check before acceptance onwards.
According to the contract, PVTrans would take responsibility for transporting the crude oil from Bach Ho oil field (Vung Tau) to Viet Thanh Bay, Binh Tri Commune, Binh Son District to supply Dung Quat factory in processing its products.
After two months of operation, Dung Quat oil refinery factory has produced over 7,000 tonnes of diesel made in Vietnam. The factory plans to introduce A92, 94, 95 products to the market in the near future.
RusVietpetro to start pumping oil in Russia
Vietnamnet
A joint venture between the Russian firm Zarubezhneft and PetroVietnam will start extracting oil in the Nenets autonomous region of northern Russia this month, the Vietnam News Agency reported.
RusVietpetro plans to drill 13 wells this year and next, the agency reported, citing the Voice of Russia.
It anticipates extracting 500,000 tonnes of oil by the end of 2010 and two million tonnes the following year.
RusVietpetro, formed in July 2008 with PetroVietnam holding a 51% stake, is aiming for a maximum output of 6.4 million tonnes of crude oil by 2020.
Elsewhere in the world, PetroVietnam has been short-listed to negotiate drilling contracts in 11 oilfields in Iraq, the news agency reported in April.
Nine consortiums formed by 38 companies are vying for the tender, which was put out on December 31, 2008.
Besides PetroVietnam, the short-listed candidates are Rosneft and Tatneft of Russia, KazMunaiGas of Kazakhstan, Sonangol of Angola, Pakistan Petroleum, Japan's Jogmec, Oil India, and Britain's Cairn Energy PLC.
PetroVietnam is also planning to explore for oil and gas in Bolivia as it seeks to expand its interests in Latin America, Bloomberg said in late March, citing the president of Bolivia's state energy company, YPF Bolivianos.
Vietnam unconcerned over Indian move of safe guard on HR
Steel Guru
The Vietnam Steel Association said it does not feel threatened by a dumping probe initiated by India because the country did not manufacture the products that have come under investigation.
Pham Chi Cuong chair of the Vietnam Steel Association said that his association is not worried because Vietnamese steel companies do not manufacture hot rolled coils, sheets or strip steel the products under investigation.
He added that some trading firms imported the products late last year, but when prices dropped, re-exported to foreign markets, including India. Cuong said that "These companies are not members of the association and only antidumping lawsuits against manufacturers need to be paid attention to."
He added that "It is also difficult to initiate a dumping investigation against the trading firms because they exported the steel to India for just a brief period."
India's directorate general of Safeguards will impose anti dumping measures on steel imports from Vietnam and 15 other markets if its investigation finds the domestic steel industry injured or threatened by the imports.
SGT plans to increase hike capital to 772.75b dong
01/May/2009 CafeF
Saigon Telecommunication& Technology Corp (SaigonTel) (coded SGT) has approved the proposal to raise its chartered capital to 772.75 billion dong in 2009 in its shareholders' meeting held recently.
At present, the company's chartered capital is 585 billion dong. According to its plan, each investor who owns 100 shares would get extra 15 new shares.
The company said its dividend would be 12% in shares and 3% in bonus shares. It's expected to issue the total amount of 8,774,998 shares within Q2 year 2009.
In the last two quarters of year 2009, SaigonTel would offer 10 million shares (with value of 100 billion dong) for its major investors.
The company expected to achieve 650 billion dong of revenue in 2009, with after tax profit of 68 billion dong and dividend of 10% in its 2009 business plan
BTP reaches 25.2b dong in Q1 profit
01/May/2009 CafeF
Ba Ria Thermoelectricity JSC (coded BTP) announced to achieve a turnover of 343 billion dong and after tax profit of 25 billion dong in Q1 year 2009.
BTB's output reached about 632,900 MWh, equivalent to 30.48% of its year plan. The company's net revenue from business was posted at 343.4 billion dong and that from financial activities was 510 million dong.
The company's pre-tax profit and after tax profit were 28 billion dong and 25.2 billion dong in turn.
Its 2008 total revenue achieved 1.503 trillion dong along with the pre-tax profit of 244.5 billion dong, in which the earnings from forex rate difference was 185.9 billion dong.
There are 10 turbines in BTP at the moment with a total designed capacity of 388.9 MW. The company's chartered capital now is about 605 billion dong, 79.5% of which is held by Electricity of Vietnam (EVN). Vietnam Infrastructure Strategic Ltd (belonging to VinaCapital) owns 5%.
VTEC reports 28pct revenue spike
01/May/2009 CafeF
Viet Tien Garment Co (VTEC) reported gaining 343 billion dong in Q1 revenue, increasing 28% against 2008, and an after tax profit of 15.7 billion dong,
The company plans to reach a turnover of 1.470 trillion dong and 52 billion dong in after-tax profit this year.
VTEC's 2008 revenue was posted at 1.397 trillion dong and a profit of 46.9 billion dong.
The company's export market structure gained after Q1 includes Japan (accounting for 33% of its export turnover), US 23%, EU 26.5% and the others 17.2%.
Confectionary-maker profit burn out by 60pct
01/May/2009 CafeF
Kinh Do Corp (coded KDC) recently announced its financial report for Q1 of 2009 with the Q1 after tax profit of 21.5 billion dong, a y-o-y reduction of 59%.
In which, the profit contributed by the parent company made up 14 billion dong.
The company's combined profit was posted at 63 billion dong, down 11% due to net sales revenue was up 1% to 159 billion dong while the business cost increased 6%.
Net sales profit was 20.2 billion dong, a decrease of 62% against 2008.
Total pre-tax profit reached 21.7 billion dong in Jan-March.
Earlier, North Kinh Do JSC had released its business report with the after tax profit of 7.8 billion dong, slumping 51% from the previous year.
300b dong approved for Nam He hydroelectric plant
Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam page 1
Bank for Investment and development of Vietnam (Bidv) Dien Bien Branch signed a credit agreement on May2to finance project of Nam He hydroelectric plant. The construction site is located in Muong Tung Commune, Muong Cha District with the project's total investment capital of 300 billion dong.
The main contractor is Song Da-Dien Bien Energy JSC, under method of Building-Operating (BO).
The plant's designed capacity is 15MW. It will officially operate its first turbine in 2010 and the second in Q2 year 2012. Nam He hydroelectric plant when in operation will contribute over 60 million kWh per year to the national grid.
40,000dwt container ship berths at Cai Lan
03/May/2009 Lao Dong Online
Cai Lan International Port welcome MSC PEGY (Panama), the ever largest container carrier has docked at this port at midnight May 03
MSC PEGY has its tonnage of 40,462 tonnes, with total carrying capacity of 32,696 tonnes. The carrier is 207 metres long and 32.24 metres wide. It landed in Cai Lan Port, carrying 1.092 TEUS (one TEUS is equivalent to a 20-feet container) from Hong Kong. The goods will be transported to Singapore. This belongs to MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co (Switzerland), the world's second largest company of container shipping capacity.
In order to meet the demand for development, to take full advantage of Cai Lan deep-water port, Quang Ninh Province has granted the certificate of investment to Cai Lan International Container Port Co Ltd to carry out the project for building, operating and developing the wharfs No 2, 3, 4 in an area of 155,685 square metres, with the total investment capital of US$103 million.
When the project is finished, the port can received those container carriers with tonnage of up to 40,000 tonnes, with other supporting vehicles and logistic system. The goods output transported via the port is expected to reach 760,000 TEUS in 2017.
Savills VN officially becomes VVA member
Nguoi Lao Dong
Vietnam Valuers Association (VVA) has admitted Savills VN Co Ltd (Savills) as an official member.
Neil MacGregor, vice executive manager of Savills VN said this would help Savills develop its professional consultancy services in Vietnam, as well as maintain its position as the leading provider for real estate consultancy services in this challenging market. Together with its long-term development commitment in Vietnam, the company hopes that becoming VVA's member will improve the value assessment quality in Vietnam, to be equal to international market.
Vietnam plans to export 5.5m tonnes of rice in 2009
Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam
Vietnam plans to export 5.5 million tonnes of rice in 2009, increasing 500,000 tonnes against last year, according to Vietnam Food Association (VFA)'s report. Within the first six months, Vietnam has signed contracts to deliver 3.7 million tonnes.
VFA stated that the exporting price delivered in July-August has increased sharply by US$30-60 per tonne, compared to that of the beginning of 2009. It's expected that rice export volume would reach about 3.4-3.5 million tonnes in June. The figures in April show that the nation has exported 700,000 tonnes, with fob of US$290 million, up by 59.4% against last year.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade and VFA has recently asked for the government's permit to allow the enterprises to continue sign new rice export contracts, after earlier agreement of 3.7 million tonnes of rice delivered in the first six months.
VFA held a meeting with its members on April 27 to reach an agreement on methods for increasing rice export efficiency. The delivery time for new contracts will start from June.
According to The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)'s predict, the world's rice demand this year would be about 32 million tonnes, increasing 2,000 tonnes against 2008.
Riverorchid Vietnam launches Vietnammobile!
Adoimagazine
After months of almost clandestine work, including logo design, brand architecture and even store and SIM card design, Riverorchid Vietnam has launched the new Vietnamobile GSM network with a series of impactful TV commercials.
Called "Movement", the 60-second launch commercial shows the birth of the new brand through a popular mass mobilisation. With tongue firmly in cheek, the VM logo is seen to spread through Vietnam in an almost infectious fashion. The end tag: "Vietnamobile, it's not just a network, it's a movement".
Produced in Vietnam by Ho Chi Minh-based production house Sud-Est working with Australian director James Teh, and with music from KL's 2am Studio, the work had a truly multinational team behind it. Creative was led by ex-TBWA ECD Chris Howden and Head of Art VJ Anand, who previously worked on the successful Telekom Malaysia rebranding. Upstream of that, however, Riverorchid also developed all of Vietnamobile's product branding, created from scratch by Thai designer and art director Chaisit Srital-on, better known as Ball.
"What I love about Ball's work is how he has managed to give each product a fresh, dynamic look with a touch of attitude and individuality," said Howden.
"It's great to have such a wonderful opportunity to launch a major new brand. It's also given us the chance to show the market a glimpse of what Riverorchid is capable of... and there's more to come," said Nguyen Thi Kim Thoa, Head of Business Development for Riverorchid.
In what is proving a busy couple of months for Riverorchid Vietnam, the launch comes at the same time as several major new hires, including most recently, award-winning creative from O&M Sydney, Adrian McNamara, as Executive Creative director, Vietnam. Prior to O&M, McNamara spent several years with M&C Saatchi and Clemengers BBDO. He recently won an Australian Writers & Art directors award and several ADMA (Australian Direct Marketing Association) awards.
Said Sunny Hermano, GM of Riverorchid Vietnam, "across the six countries in which we operate, this year alone Riverorchid has actually increased its staffing levels by about a dozen people, and we're still recruiting. Though hard times are sweeping though much of the industry we're finding that our boutique network model is allowing us to respond very precisely to specific customer needs; offering good, measurable value in tough times. And we're still seeing considerable growth - in Vietnam and beyond."
VDC sets up Virtual Private Network with HK
Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam Online
Vietnam Data Communication Co (VDC) signed an agreement with CPCNet Hong Kong to provide Virtual Private Network (VPN) on April 27.
The two parties agreed to set up a node for providing VPN services in Vietnam with an initial international transmission channel of 4Mbps between HCM City-Hong Kong.
The advantages of VPN are simple connection, low cost. VPN users only need to register the nodes and demanded gate speed, then NGN network system will carry out connection among the nodes via virtual private channels.
It's expected setting up the node for supplying VPN in HCM City would finish at the end of June, and officially in operation in July this year, This would meet the customers' demand for this service in the whole Asia.
By cooperating with COC Net, VDC expects that its international VPN services can be introduced to customers in other nations and territories such as Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan
The two companies will work together to set up the second node in Hanoi in the near future.
