Bao Viet, Vietnam's largest insurance firm, said on Tuesday it planned to list shares on the Hanoi stock exchange within two years of completing its partial privatisation this year.
Bao Viet, formally called the Vietnam Insurance Corporation, also forecast its net profit in the year to December 2007 would jump 64.3% to 524 billion dong ($32.5 million) as it expands into banking and real estate.
The Hanoi-based company is scheduled to raise at least $112.5 million in an initial public offering of 59.44 million shares, or 8.74% of its total, on May 31 at the over-the-counter Hanoi Securities Trading Center.
"It is projected that after completing the share sales we will register them with the Hanoi market," the chairman of Bao Viet's management board, Le Quang Binh, told a news conference.
"The share listing on the Hanoi market will follow within two years but which does not exclude a listing overseas," Binh said.
He said the date of the listing or a listing in any overseas market would be decided by a shareholder's meeting.
At the May 31 auction, foreign investors will be limited to buying 23%, or 13.6 million, of the shares on offer.
After the IPO, Bao Viet will offer 18% to foreign strategic investors, sell 7.22% to domestic strategic investors, with 0.7% earmarked for staff.
The state would retain 65.34% ownership in the firm, which is seeking to diversify its traditional operation in life and non-life insurance.
"We have completed and submitted to the State Bank of Vietnam the application for a licence to establish a commercial bank," Binh said.
The bank, with registered capital of 1.5 trillion dong ($93 million), is expected to start operation later this year.
Bao Viet said it held the largest share, or 34.94%, of Vietnam's non-life insurance market in 2006 while it ranked the second largest insurer in the life insurance market, with a 36.52% share, after Prudential's 41.6% share.
After completing the partial privatisation, the new company will be named Bao Viet Holdings. It will establish two subsidiaries next year to offer health and real estate insurance.
Bao Viet Holdings has forecast a revenue growth of 15% annually until 2010.
Source: Reuters
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