Vietnam Minh Phu says to issue 500 bln dong bonds
HANOI, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Minh Phu Seafood Co MPC.HM, Vietnam's top shrimp exporter and 10 percent owned by Singapore's Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL], said on Thursday it would sell corporate bonds worth 500 billion dong ($31 million).
The December 2012 bonds would be sold this month and in the first quarter of next year, with an issue date of Dec. 31, 2007 and an annual coupon of 9.98 percent, the company, based in the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau, said in a statement.
It aimed to sell the bonds to banks and other Vietnamese institutions, the statement said.
Partly-private Vietnam International Bank and Au Viet Securities Company would underwrite the issue and the proceeds would be used to restructure corporate debt and fund business projects, Minh Phu said without elaboration.
The company moved its listing to the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .VNI, Vietnam's main exchange, on Dec. 20 from the over-the-counter Hanoi stock market .HATSCI.
Shares in Minh Phu closed flat at 61,000 dong ($3.79) on Thursday, valuing the firm at $265 million.
Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] bought a 10 percent stake in Minh Phu in June.
The company said it made a net profit of 121 billion dong in the first nine months of this year, 55 percent higher than the net profit for the whole of last year.
January to September revenues were $98.4 million, $97.8 million of them from exports. The firm says its exports should rise 13.6 percent to $150 million this year.
It was Vietnam's top shrimp exporter to the United States and Australia in 2006 and ranked fifth in exports to Japan.
Minh Phu also deals in real estate and builds civil and industrial projects. ($1=16,113 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Michael Battye)
