Capital divestment at Vietnam's top brewers Sabeco and Habeco undergoes pressure

At the press conference held on September 27 by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Dang Quyet Tien, deputy director of the Department of Entrepreneurial Finance stated that the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) expects to complete the capital divestment at Sabeco and Habeco in October and November 2017. The amount of capital divestment will be transferred to Enterprise Reorganization Assistance Fund by December 01, 2017.

In case that the MoIT fails to announce the prospectus on capital divestment at Sabeco or Habeco by September 30, 2017, MoIT must delegate its acting ownership of these two companies to the SCIC, Tien said.

Tien affirmed that the delegation aims to make the capital divestment process faster since SCIC is an organization which is specialized and experienced in the State capital divestment.

Currently, MoIT holds 89.59 per cent of Sabeco’s charter capital. Expectedly, the capital divestment at sabeco will be conducted in two phases: 53.59 and 36 per cent of charter capital will be sold in the first and second phases respectively.

Stakes are scheduled to be sold through tender process. The market value of this 53.59% stake is currently estimated at around VND87,462 billion (equivalent to US$3.85 billion).

Many large regional and international brewers such as Heineken, Singha, Thai Beverage, Asahi Group Holdings… have expressed their interest in the stake sales of Sabeco.

Regarding Habeco, according to the MoIT’s plan announced in August last year, MoIT planned to divest 82 per cent of the State capital at Habeco in 2016, equaling VND9,000 billion (approximately US$396.65 million).

In October 2016, the MoIT established Steering Committee for the capital divestment at Sabeco and Habeco. The Committee was led by Cao Quoc Hung, Minister of Industry and Trade.

After Sabeco and Habeco were listed on the stock exchange, the share value of these two companies increased rapidly. Sabeco is one of the companies having the biggest market capitalization. However, the capital divestment at Sabeco and Habeco is slow.