Vietnam's MobiFone shortlists foreign firms for IPO

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HANOI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - MobiFone, Vietnam's second-largest mobile phone firm, said on Monday it has shortlisted six foreign firms which will bid to advise the state-run company on its partial privatisation, including an IPO expected in 2008.

A MobiFone statement said Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Rothschild and UBS (UBSN.VX) would bid to become the adviser for the Hanoi-based firm. It gave no timeframe for the bidding.

MobiFone, known formally as Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services Company and owned by Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications (VNPT), has said the IPO would take place early next year and VNPT would only hold one-third of the shares in MobiFone.

Strategic shareholders would have one third and outsiders the remaining stake, MobiFone's director Le Ngoc Minh said in May.

MobiFone uses GSM technology and has a 35 percent share of the domestic market where it competes with military-run Viettel and state-run Vinaphone, which is also controlled by VNPT. Privatising MobiFone, the first move in restructuring the telecommunications industry, was slow and difficult because Vietnam did not have a legal guide for the process, officials have said.