Container area in Quy Nhơn Port. Vinalines has paid VNĐ415 billion (US$17.8 million) to reacquire a 75 per cent stake in Quy Nhơn Port JSC from Hợp Thành Investment & Mineral JSC. — Photo baodautu.vn

HÀ NỘI – State-owned Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) has paid VNĐ415 billion (US$17.8 million) to reacquire a 75 per cent stake in Quy Nhơn Port JSC, which it had sold illegally to Hợp Thành Investment & Mineral JSC without the Government’s approval.

Vietnam Depository Centre has recorded the transfer of ownership to Vinalines. The shipping group will take over the port management from this month.

“Vinalines has paid VNĐ415 billion, equal to the amount that Hợp Thành spent to buy a 75 per cent stake in Quy Nhơn Port from Vinalines,” Trần Tuấn Hải, head of Vinalines’ communication division, told Giao Thông (Transportation) newspaper.

Hải said the money Hợp Thành had invested in the port after the share purchase would be calculated through an independent asset valuation process.

Vinalines has also arranged personnel in Quy Nhơn Port’s management board and would take over control of the port in its annual shareholders’ meeting at the end of this month, he added.

Quy Nhơn Port, located in Bình Định Province, is a major port in the central coast with a storage network of nearly 21,000sq.m of warehouses and 48,000sq.m for containers. Last year, a record eight million tonnes of goods passed through the port.

In 2013, the port was transformed into a joint stock company with charter capital of more than VNĐ404 billion, of which Vinalines owned more than 75 per cent stake.

Vinalines was reported to sell these stakes to private company Hợp Thành Investment & Mineral JSC which had no prior experience in operating a port for lower market price during 2013-15. 

Last September, the Government Inspectorate concluded the deal violated the law as the Ministry of Transport authorised the sale without the approval of the Prime Minister. The inspectors requested Vinalines to recover the stakes sold to Hợp Thành.

Vinalines reported net revenue of VNĐ2.9 trillion ($124 million) in the first quarter of this year, down 10 per cent  year on year. — VNS