Earning nearly VND 180 billion in four months of 2023 from divestment of five enterprises

	Production and business of active enterprises after equitization
	Ministry of Finance requests expediting equitization, divestment and restructuring of SOEs

Illustrative Photo

As of April 25, 2023, 26 enterprises have been approved by the competent authority on enterprise restructuring according to Decision No. 360/QD - TTg dated March 17, 2022, of the Prime Minister, including Vietnam National Petroleum Group, Vietnam Forestry Corporation under the Committee for Management of State Capital at Enterprises and 24 enterprises in provinces (Ha Tinh, Hoa Binh, Lai Chau, Ninh Thuan, Thai Binh and Tra Vinh).

Regarding divestment, in April 2024, one enterprise under the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) divested VND 2.6 billion, earning VND11.2 billion. In addition, in the first four months of 2023, groups, corporations, and state-owned enterprises divested capital from five enterprises with a value of VND 43.9 billion, earning VND 179.2 billion.

In the report of the Department of Corporate Finance (Ministry of Finance), this agency said that the slow progress of equitization and divestment is due to both objective and subjective reasons.

The objective reason is the great instability of the domestic and international financial markets and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, so the implementation of equitization and divestment depends on the market situation. Therefore, enterprises should choose a reasonable time to sell shares to bring efficiency and ensure feasibility.

Moreover, the enterprises implementing equitization in this period are large enterprises which have a wide operating scope, multi-industry, multi-field, and many specialized assets, difficult to determine the value; some enterprises violating regulations on management of capital and assets are undergoing inspection and investigation; and small and medium-sized enterprises that provide public utility products and services, operating in association with local activities.

The subjective reason is the poor awareness and ineffective implementation of some agencies representing owners and heads of enterprises in the equitization and divestment, so they still think of avoiding and pushing responsibility.

The review and planning of enterprise restructuring for the 2021-2025 period have not been paid due attention by agencies and units. As a result, the preparation for equitization and divestment is not good.

In addition, many enterprises have not fully completed legal procedures to rearrange and handle housing and land facilities according to the law on management and use of public assets before equitization or divestment; there are still many problems and financial problems.

The Department of Corporate Finance also assessed that the coordination between the owner's representative agencies and the People's Committees of the provinces, cities, ministries and relevant agencies in addressing problems related to the approval of land use plans and handling financial problems is still not good.

Regarding solutions to solve problems and accelerate the progress of equitization and divestment in the future, the Ministry of Finance said that it is necessary to build a database to monitor and manage the progress of declarations and reports and approval of plans for rearranging and handling houses and land; strictly handle cases of slowing down or violating regulations on equitization and divestment of state capital at enterprises; increase publicity and transparency of information on the financial situation, production and business activities of state-owned enterprises; strengthen the inspection and supervision of the implementation of divestment and disbursement and the removal of difficulties for enterprises.

The Ministry of Finance is reviewing, summarizing and proposing amendments and supplements to several legal mechanisms and policies, such as the development of a Law on the management and use of state capital invested in production and business in enterprises (amended) and many provisions in the relevant decrees of the Government, reported by the Ministry of Finance.

Divestment plans at State-owned enterprises attract little attention Many State-owned enterprises have announced their auction schedule for capital divestment plans, but not all of them ...

On May 4, 2023, the Ministry of Finance sent a dispatch requesting the ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Government agencies, the Committee for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises and the People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government to urge enterprises to report on the financial situation and results of production and business activities in 2022.