Hanoi (VNA) - The State Securities Commission (SSC) has endorsed the ceilingforeign ownership level at the Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) at20 percent as approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc last year.

The SSC’s document, issued on April18, came just three days ahead of the company’s debut on the HCM StockExchange.

Petrolimex will list more than 1.29billion shares worth a total of VNĐ12.94 trillion (567.5 million USD) on April21 under the sticker PLX.

The reference price on the firsttrading date is 43,200 VND (1.9 USD) a share and is allowed to rise/decline bya maximum of 20 percent.

At this price, Petrolimex’s marketcap is estimated at around 2.45 billion USD  after debuting, making it the fifth largestlisted company on the HCM Stock Exchange.

Two stakeholders hold 83.87 percentof Petrolimex’s capital, of which the Ministry of Industry and Trade has 75.87 percentand JX Nippon Oil & Energy Co Ltd, a member of the Japanese energy group JXHoldings, owns 8 percent.

On its prospectus on April 17,Petrolimex reported its foreign ownership at roughly 8.18 percent, which meansforeign investors can buy 11.82 percent of the energy company’s capital afterlisting.

In a shareholders’ meeting in March,Petrolimex’s chairman Bui Ngoc Bao said the Japanese firm would be the onlystrategic investor in Petrolimex and it might upstake its ownership to 20-25 percent.

In Late 2015, JX Nippon Oil &Energy spent 39,017 VND per share to purchase 13.5 million shares issued byPetrolimex worth a total 4 trillion VND. This investment is consideredprofitable for the Japanese company as its purchase price is lower thanPetrolimex’s reference price of 43,200 VND apiece on April 21.

Petrolimex is the biggest petroleumdealer in Vietnam, occupying 48-50 percent of the market. The petroleumbusiness unit contributes 50 percent of the group’s earnings.

It posted total revenues of over 123.1trillion VND and pre-tax profits of 6.3 trillion VND in 2016, the highest sinceits establishment.

The company has proposed to theMinistry of Industry and Trade the 2016 dividend rate of 32.24 percent,equivalent to total payment of over 3.7 trillion VND, or 80 percent of its 2016net profit.

The petrol dealer has targeted totalsales of 143.2 trillion VND and pre-tax profits of nearly 4.7 trillion VND in2017, up 16.3 percent and 17 percent year-on-year, respectively.

It will hold an annual shareholders’meeting on April 25.-VNA