Vietnam Airlines' aircraft (Photo: Vietnam Airlines)
Hanoi (VNA) - All Nippon Airways (ANA), the largest airline in Japan by revenue and passenger numbers, will purchase 8.8 percent of the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines's stake for 2.43 trillion VND (108 million USD).
To this effect, the two airlines signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on strategic cooperation on January 12.
As part of Vietnam Airlines’s deal with ANA, the two carriers will code-share on certain routes between Vietnam and Japan. The strategic relations will help them take advantage of each other’s strength to enlarge their networks and expand international markets by cross selling tickets on some of each others’ flights.
At the signing ceremony, Vietnam Airlines Chairman Pham Viet Thanh , highlighted that the collaboration will smart en up its image, bring additional value and convenience to customers, while increasing its competitiveness in international markets.
ANA will appoint representative to Vietnam Airlines’s Board of Management, said ANA President and CEO Shinya Katanozaka, committing to share management experience to support the Vietnamese carrier in improving service quality.
He underscored that ANA sees Vietnam Airlines as an ideal partner in its strategy to broaden its operations in the Asian region, given that the two carriers share a similar code of standards in development, customer access and efficient operation.
The two airlines plan to sign a share purchase agreement in the first quarter of this year.
The national flag carrier’s fleet totals 87 aircraft, covering 21 domestic and 29 international routes. It operates 66 weekly flights connecting Vietnam and Japan while ANA is running 14 weekly flights on the same routes.
By the end of September 2015, Vietnam Airlines earned 52.5 trillion VND (2.34 billion USD) in revenue, 1.08 trillion VND (48.1 million USD) above its target. Of that turnover, pretax profit was more than 1.3 trillion VND (57.9 million USD), rising 674 billion VND (30 million USD) compared with the previous 12 months when the firm had yet to be equitised .
The firm launched its initial public offering in November 2014 at an average price of 22,300 VND (0.9 USD) per share. Under the equitisation plan, the firm plans to sell up to ♕20 percent of its stake to strategic investors.-VNA
