A small Vietnamese rubber producer said on Tuesday it would auction state shares on the Ho Chi Minh City stock market next month to raise at least $9.56 million. The Tay Ninth Rubber Co said in a statement it would sell 8,387,700 shares, or 27.96 percent of its stock, in an initial public offering on December 14 as part of its partial privatisation.
It did not say how many shares would remain in state ownership after the auction. The company based in the southern province of Tay Ninth bordering Cambodia, set a starting price for bids at 18,300 dong ($1.14) per share, which suggested its value at $34.2 million.
Thong Long Securities Company is advising on the share sale. Natural rubber is Vietnam's second-largest foreign exchange earning farm product after rice. So far this year, rubber exports have surged 76.5 percent from the same period last year to $1.21 billion, government figures show.
Vietnam, the world's fourth-largest rubber exporter after Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, aims to expand its rubber area to 550,000 hectares (1.36 million acres) by 2010, including 50,000 hectares in Laos, from 480,000 hectares now.