Vietnam Rubber Group announces IPO

Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG), a state-owned business and country’s largest rubber producer/exporter, is scheduled to launch an initial public offering (IPO) on 2 February 2018 with shares being listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in June or July.

According to the Xinhua news site, the VRG will auction 475 million shares, or roughly 11.9 per cent of its chartered capital of 40 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly US$1.8 billion), at a starting price of 13,000 Vietnamese dong (nearly $0.60). VRG will also sell roughly 11.9 per cent of the chartered capital to strategic investors, while the state will retain 3 billion shares or 75 per cent of the capital.

VRG, whose core business is natural rubber, has revenue of 19 trillion Vietnamese dong ($840.7 million) and net profits of 3.6 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly $159.3 million) in 2017.

VRG currently manages 501,300 hectares of agricultural land and 18,600 hectares of non-agricultural land in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Vietnam exported nearly 1.4 million tons of rubber worth roughly $2.3 billion in 2017, according to the country’s Ministry of Industry and Trade.