A number of foreign telecom firms have expressed strong interest in acquiring shares of MobiFone when this mobile carrier launches an initial public offering (IPO), probably next year.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son has urged MobiFone to complete a new equitization scheme for the ministry to consider and submit it to the Government for approval late this year so that the firm can go public next year.

The Government passed an equitization plan for MobiFone in 2006 and many foreign telecom firms have since come to open their representative offices and business arms in Vietnam in preparation for becoming strategic shareholders of MobiFone.

As the equitization process has been too slow, some foreign telecom firms have left Vietnam. But some of them have returned after Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) spun off MobiFone in the middle of this year to let the latter go public.

Arne Kjetil Lian, a senior vice president at Telenor, asked about the equitization of MobiFone at a recent meeting with leaders of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications. Telenor wants to invest in and join the management of MobiFone by contributing capital to the local enterprise and sharing its experience in telecom service trading on global markets.

Sweden’s telecom firm Comvik, which was MobiFone’s strategic partner in 1990-2005, has recently talked with leaders of the ministry about its intention to re-partner with the local firm when it is equitized.

In addition to Telenor and Comvik, other big foreign firms like Vodafone, France Telecom and Singtel are interested in MobiFone’s equitization.

MobiFone chairman Mai Van Binh said as instructed by the Ministry of Information and Communications, VNPT will hold a maximum stake of 20% at MobiFone when the mobile network provider is equitized.

MobiFone had been under the umbrella of VNPT for 21 years before the Government issued a decision approving the divestiture of MobiFone from VNPT in mid-June as part of a scheme to restructure the state-owned corporation in 2014-2015. As VNPT had contributed much to developing MobiFone, it wants to become a key shareholder.

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Le Nam Thang said Vietnam will fulfill its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and telecom organizations when equitizing MobiFone.

Source: SGT/VNN