Petrovietnam Insurance Corp. (PVI), Vietnam's third-largest insurer, plans to raise at least $31 million from an auction of 10 million new shares this week.
The insurer said in a statement seen on Monday it had set a starting price for bidding at 50,000 dong ($3.1) a share for the auction scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
The Hanoi Securities Trading Centre said more than 3,200 investors, including 75 institutions, had registered to bid for the shares. The company's stock is being traded in the unofficial market at around 120,000 dong ($7.4).
The share sale is part of the firm's plan to issue more than 35 million shares to boost finances before a domestic listing later this year, company officials have said.
PVI, which raised nearly $117 million by selling 23 percent of its shares in an initial public offering in January, has applied to list on the Hanoi exchange, Chairman Le Van Hung told state media last week.
Last year, PVI had an 18.09 percent share of Vietnam's non-life insurance market, making it the third biggest after state-run Bao Viet, which had a 34.94 percent share, and Bao Minh with 21.29 percent, industry reports said.
PVI said its audited net profit jumped 51.7 percent last year from 2005 to 44 billion dong following a 65.6-percent surge in insurance premiums to 1.16 trillion dong ($72 million).
Since the start of this year, PVI has been expanding from its core insurance business, investing in areas such as crude oil production, banking, stock broking and cement production.
PVI and Petrovietnam have become founding members of a company building several hydro-power plants in Laos.
PVI said its revenues soared 165 percent in the first four months of 2007 from a year earlier to more than 750 billion dong ($46.6 million).
Source: Reuters
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