FPT Becomes Vietnam's Biggest Listed Firm

The Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology (FPT), Vietnam’s leading IT firm, floated all its 60.8 million shares on Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center (HSTC) December 13, becoming the biggest listed companies in terms of market capitalization on the bourse.

 

FPT ended at VND400,000 a share, the highest ever debut price on the market. It saw 83,530 shares matching orders in the day.

 

Based on this closing price, FPT was capitalized at VND24.3 trillion (US$1.52 billion), surpassing the market’s leader Vinamilk, which had market capitalization of VND22.1 trillion on the same day.

 

FPT, the 68^th stock on the HSTC, has a registered capital of VND608 billion, including state holding a 7.3 per cent stake, staff 66.64 per cent and outside investors 26.06 per cent.

 

FPT now leads Vietnam in mobile distribution, systems integration, software services, telecom, Internet and e-media content. The firm saw revenue growth averaging 70 per cent annually over the past five years.

 

The company has become gold partners of the world’s leading information technology firms such as Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, Checkpoint, IBM, HP, RSA, NCR, and Diebold.

 

In October, FPT signed to sell a US$36.5 million stake to Texas Pacific Group and Intel Capital, a unit of Intel Corp, making them strategic partners.

 

In 2005, FPT scored revenue of VND8.21 trillion, or US$517 million, and net profit of VND301 billion, or US$21.7 million, up 60.4 per cent and 61 per cent respectively from 2004. It paid dividend at 67 per cent last year.

 

Following are FPT’s operating results in the last years:

 

	2004	2005	Jan-Sep 2006
Total Assets (VND Bln)	1.584	2.219	2.705
Revenues (VND Bln)	5.100	8.211	7.725
Pretax Profits (VND Bln)	193	344	337
Net Profits (VND Bln)	139	301	295