Foreign ownership limit in Vietnam budget carrier Vietjet goes up to 30%

Vietnam’s State Securities Commission has allowed Vietjet Air to lift its foreign ownership limit (FOL) to 30%, the budget airline announced Wednesday.

As of the end of 2022, Vietjet, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) as VJC, had a charter capital of VND5,416 billion ($223.3 million), equivalent to 541.6 million outstanding shares, according to its annual report.

Domestic shareholders were the biggest stakeholders at 82.99%, including 26.6% by institutions and 56.39% by individuals.

Foreign shareholders owned a 17.01% stake, with 16.92% belonging to institutions and 0.09% belonging to individuals.

As of January 3, 2023, the airline had three major shareholders: Sunflower Sunny Investment Co. Ltd., a firm owned by Vietjet CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, with 28.57%; Thao herself with 8.76%; and Sovico JSC, chaired by Thao, with 7.59%.

Vietjet is the biggest carrier in Vietnam in terms of number of flights operated. In the first ten months of this year, Vietjet conducted 91,653 flights; followed by national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines with 86,484; Bamboo Airways with 35,402; Pacific Airlines with 17,515; VASCO with 5,169; and Vietravel with 4,954, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV).

However, the Vietnam Airlines Group, comprising Vietnam Airlines, Pacific Airlines, and VASCO, topped Vietjet with a total of 109,168 flights.

In Jan-Sept this year, VJC posted a consolidated post-tax profit of VND192.02 billion ($7.91 million), up 2.4% year-on-year, on revenues of VND43,737.8 billion ($1.8 billion), up 58.8%