Vietnam MobiFone Posts Pretax Profit of VND5.86T in 2010

VMS MobiFone, a unit of Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT), said it earned a pretax profit of nearly VND5.86 trillion ($300.51 million) last year, rising 6% on year and making up 52.32% of the VNPT’s profit.

 

Its revenues were over VND36.03 trillion in 2010. The figure witnessed an on-year growth of 31.5% and accounted for 35% of total revenues made by the VNPT.

 

It contributed VND4.2 trillion to the state budget during the year.

 

By the end of 2010, MobiFone had more than 20,000 base transceiver stations. It signed up an additional 5.95 million actual mobile subscribers last year, compared to 10 million developed by VinaPhone, which is another mobile network unit of VNPT.

 

Le Ngoc Minh, chairman of MobiFone, said the company targets a profit of VND6.16 trillion on revenues of VND39 trillion this year. It will start roaming services between MobiFone and VinaPhone networks to better serve their clients.

 

It will also renovate distribution channel model and promote sales activities.

 

MobiFone is expected to launch initial public offering this year or next year after a long delay since 2008. France Telecom has reaffirmed its desire to pursue stake of MobiFone at the IPO.

 

In 2009, Credit Suisse valued total assets of MobiFone at more than $2 billion.

 

Many global telecom giants including Belgium’s Telenor, the U.K.’s Vodafone, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo are also very interested in buying stake of Vietnamese partners. The maiden share sales of MobiFone, VinaPhone and EVN Telecom, expected to be launched in next 1-2 years, are on the radar screen. (Vneconomy, www.ictnews.vn))