Vietnam’s largest shrimp company, Minh Phu Seafood Corp., expects to complete a deal to sell stake to foreign partners at the end of next month, company’s chairman and CEO Le Van Quang told SeafoodSource on 22 April.
“Our partners are finalizing procedures to transfer money [to a designated frozen bank account], which is expected to finish in late May,” Quang said. He added that the process takes time partly because the partners have to report the transactions to the state securities committees of the countries where the partners have operations. He said that Minh Phu can only announce details of the deal after the money transference is completed.
Vietnam’s State Securities Commission on 12 April gave approval for Minh Phu to sell stake to foreign investors. The company was required to report to the commission the results of the stake sale within 10 days of the deal finishing.
Japan’s Mitsui and four other foreign investors have been shortlisted as finalists to acquire a stake in Minh Phu. The list was finalized in a shareholders’ extraordinary general meeting that concluded on 29 January.
The four other potential buyers included two from Japan, one from the United States and one from South Korea.
Each of the five investors will be allowed to buy part or all of the 75.72 million shares that Minh Phu will issue, subject to approval from Minh Phu's board of directors.
Quang was authorized at the shareholders’ meeting to negotiate with the buyers and decide on final prices. The proceeds from the share issuance will be used to strengthen the company’s financial position and add more capital for production and business activities, he said. Part of the money gained from the stake sale will be used to invest in shrimp farming and processing expansion, Quang said.
Minh Phu’s share was trading at VND 42,000 (USD 1.81, EUR 1.61) per share on the Vietnam’s Unlisted Public Company Market on 22 April.
In a shareholders’ extraordinary general meeting in November last year, Minh Phu approved plans to build a breaded shrimp processing plant in Vietnam and two cold storage facilities in the U.S.
The progress of these projects will be discussed in detail after the stake sales are concluded, according to Quang.
