Dung Quat refinery operator’s IPO expected by end of 2017

Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (BSR), wholly-owned by Vietnamese state-run oil and gas group PetroVietnam, has released plans to launch its initial public offering (IPO) at the end of 2017.

The going public of this key player on the Vietnamese oil and gas market has reportedly attracted interest from top global energy firms already.

BSR’s general director Tran Ngoc Nguyen told Vietnamplus.vn that the company is hiring consultant companies to build the equitisation plan and calculate its corporate value, as well as the auctioned shares’ price.

Nguyen stated that numerous foreign investors, including Russian and Thai conglomerates, have expressed interest in buying a stake in BSR. In addition, the prime ministerial decision to allow BSR to calculate its own selling price will create a platform for attracting domestic and foreign investors to the company’s IPO.

Earlier in November 2015, the government intended to launch the oil refinery’s IPO by the end of 2016. However, the process has taken longer than expected due to the complexity in evaluating the company.

As per an earlier government plan, the equitisation entails selling a strategic stake of 49 per cent in Dung Quat refinery to a foreign investor. Russia’s top energy firms, Rosneft and Gazprom Neft, both of which are PetroVietnam’s long-term partners in the oil industry, Thailand’s PTT, and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. submitted bids for this minority stake in the Vietnamese refinery.

However, in January 2016, Gazprom Neft broke negotiations with PetroVietnam over the acquisition, possibly because the Vietnamese government declined to accord preferential treatment for it to join the expansion plan of the refinery.

However, PetroVietnam reported that the Russian partner would still consider buying the refinery's shares in the future, after it goes public.

Source: VIR

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