HCM CITY – The Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) announced and granted the listing decision, welcoming the first transaction day of the Vietnam National Petroleum Group shares coded PLX at 8.30am today, April 21, 2017. Petrolimex is the group with largest State capital contribution on the market.

With chartered capital of VND12,938 billion (US$569.5 million) and reference price of VND43,200/share, the PLX’s market capitalisation reached VND55,892 billion ($2.5 billion), accounting for about 3.3% of the market capitalisation of HOSE (VND1.68 trillion as of April 19, 2017). On the first transaction day, PLX will officially be ranked among the top 10 shares with largest market capitalisation in Vietnam, including VNM, VCB, SAB, VIC, and GAS and exceeds the capitalisation of BIDV and CTG.

“HOSE is the stock exchange that set strict requirements for enterprises, which is almost similar to those set on international stock exchanges, and is the place that concentrates big enterprises. Surely enough, the large-sized Petrolimex will be among the VN30 Index [the VN30 Index made up of 30 stocks with the highest market capitalisation and liquidity]. This is the firm’s target as well as expectations of investors upon Petrolimex listing on the stock exchange”, Petrolimex Chairman Bui Ngoc Bao said.

Since its equitisation in 2011, Petrolimex has seen a tremendous growth in sales in all key business areas including petroleum, transportation, gas and petrochemical. Of note, the year 2016 marked a striking success of the Group since its establishment with turnover of VND123,127 billion, the highest among the top 10 by market capitalisation. Profit after-tax reached VND5,166 billion in 2016, up 50 per cent since the previous year. Earnings per share (EPS) reached VND4,254, just behind Vinamilk and Sabeco in the top 10 by market cap.

With the above results, Petrolimex plans to pay a dividend of more than 32% in cash in 2016 to bring about greatest values for shareholders. The Group targets to yield a total revenue of VND163,221 billion this year and VND202,202 billion in 2020. Business plans are carefully set and adjusted on the basis of real situation by the Petrolimex Board of Management. Dividends are set a minimum of 12% up to 3-5 years.

Additional information about Petrolimex:

Petrolimex was established on January 12, 1956 in accordance with the Decree No.09/BTN by the Ministry of Commerce – now Ministry of Industry and Trade. The forerunner of the Vietnam National Petroleum Group was the Gasoline, Oil and Grease Corporation that performed a lofty mission to ensure sufficient supply of oil and petrol for the whole country. Until now, Petrolimex has grown to be a strong economic group of Vietnam, doing business in seven areas of petroleum, petrol transportation, petrochemical, gas, design and engineering, commercial services and other financial institutions (insurance, banking).

With a vision to “Taking You Further”, Petrolimex chose JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. (JXE) - the largest oil company in Japan - as its strategic partner and completed the selling of 103,5 million shares (equal to 8%) to JXE, which makes the latter become a strategic partner and reduces the Group’s State ownership represented by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to 75,87%, with treasury stock of 12%.

In the field of petroleum distribution, Petrolimex is the largest enterprise among the 29 key distributors; making up about 50% of the market share nationwide with a retail network of 2,352 petrol stations across the 63 cities and provinces. The sales volume of Petrolimex was 9.2 million tonnes in 2011 but increased to 11.55 million tonnes in 2016 (the average growth rate in the 2014-16 period reached 8-9% annually) and maintains an increase of 3.5-4% in the next five years. In the future, Petrolimex continues to expand its retail system in the next five years, opening 150 petrol stations annually which will also offer convenient services to increase revenue.

Petrolimex is the first petroleum company to successfully apply the EGAS-ERP management software, which helps improve the efficiency of corporate governance. Accordingly, the data is updated exactly according to the operation and real time.

In addition, Petrolimex's storage system covers 2.2 million cubic meters, the largest in the country and 570km of pipelines, and is the only one with a bonded warehouse to receive 150,000DWT tankers; which helps Petrolimex take initiative in source and minimising the costs of petroleum transportation.

With achievements obtained over the past 60 years, Petrolimex has been bestowed with noble titles by the Party and State of Vietnam:

• The Independence Order, First Class (second time).
• The Ho Chi Minh Order.
• The Independence Order (all classes).
• The Labour Order (all classes).
• The Military Exploit Order (all classes).
• The Labour Hero Title.