Saigon Port Company Limited will sell 35.7 million shares, or 16.5 percent of its equity, to strategic investors.

Accordingto HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE), these shares will be sold after thecompany completes its initial public offering (IPO) at rates not lowerthan the IPO's average price.

Vingroup, VPBank and Vietinbank have already signed up to acquire stakes in Saigon Port.

Vingrouphas announced plans to acquire 80 percent of Saigon Port's charteredcapital, while VPBank and Vietinbank plan to buy 11 percent each.

Asreported on June 1, Saigon Port will hold its IPO on June 30, in which asimilar number of shares will be auctioned at a base price of 11,500VND per share.

Three percent of the chartered capital will be sold to the company's employees and its labour union at preferential prices.

After the IPO, the State will hold 64 percent of the port's chartered capital.

Saigon Port expects the IPO to raise its charted capital to 2.16trillion VND (98.9 million USD) with a total asset value of 3.95trillion VND (181 million USD).

It is now investing 2.8 trillionVND (129.6 million USD) in building the Saigon-Hiep Phuoc Port. Lastyear, the company recorded 1.07 trillion VND (78.8 million USD) incombined revenues for pre-tax profits of 79 billion VND (3.65 millionUSD).

Saigon Port Company Limited, a subsidiary of the VietnamNational Shipping Lines (Vinalines), transports 10 million tonnes ofgoods each year.

The company manages four ports in HCM City'sDistrict 4 and District 7. The ports have 20 docks and 463,448 squaremetres of warehouses and shipyards.-VNA