In the first nine months of 2017, Sabeco achieved a 9.7% increase in revenue and eared VND24,099 billion (more than US$1 billion). However, the profit of the largest beer company of Vietnam only increased 2.2% compared with the same period last year.
According to Sabeco, the change in the method of accounting for cost of sales support made selling expenses grow by VND217 billion (about US$12.8 million) compared with the same period of 2016.
In addition, in the third quarter of this year, Sabeco no longer recorded financial income from the divestment as last year.
Sabeco has a chartered capital of over VND6,400 billion (nearly US$303 million) now. In 10% of its shares sold through equitization in 2008, Heineken holds 5% and the Ministry of Industry and Trade holds 89.59%.
According to the plan on October 20, the Ministry of Industry and Trade must submit a plan to withdraw 53.59% of Sabeco's capital to the government. The market value of this amount of shares is about US$4.2 billion.
It is still ambiguous whether the divestment will be carried out in the same way that SCIC divested from Vinamilk or will sell in one time to some investors.
Many corporations such as Carlton & United Breweries (subsidiary of AB Inbev - Belgium), Kirin (Japan), Thai Beverage, etc are interested in buying shares in Sabeco recently after the Vietnamese government decided to divest from this beer company.
According to data from Bloomberg Intelligence, Sabeco currently holds 40 beer market share in Vietnam with two main brands are 333 and Saigon.
