Vietnam MobiFone sees '08 revenue growth slowing

HANOI, Dec 26 (Reuters) - MobiFone, Vietnam's second-largest mobile phone firm, expects revenue growth to slow to 17 percent next year after a 30 percent rise this year, a company official was quoted on Wednesday as saying.

The firm planned to raise revenues to 17 trillion dong ($1.1 billion) in 2008 from an expected 14.5 trillion dong this year, the official Vietnam News Agency quoted marketing manager Dinh Viet Hung as saying.

Its expected 2007 revenues would account for 38 percent of the revenues of all Vietnam's seven mobile phone network operators, the report said.

Hung gave no reasons for slower growth next year and no profit figures were quoted.

MobiFone, or Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services Company, owned by Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications (VNPT), aims to nearly double its users to 18 million by the end of 2008 from 10 million now. It had 7.1 million users last year.

MobiFone is the second-largest mobile phone service provider in Vietnam after military-run Viettel, which has 14 million users.

MobiFone has been working to pick a foreign adviser for an initial public offering, a lengthy process that has delayed the IPO until May or June next year, a company executive said last month. It is expected to pick an adviser in February from Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX), Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Rothschild and UBS (UBSN.VX).

France Telecom (FTE.PA), Singapore Telecommunications (STEL.SI), Norwegian telecoms group Telenor (TEL.OL) and Japan's NTT DoCoMo (9437.T) are among foreign firms keen to bid for MobiFone shares.

VNPT has said it would own one-third of MobiFone, which uses GSM technology, after the IPO.

(Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Michael Battye)

((ho.minh@reuters.com; +844 825 9623; Reuters Messaging: ho.minh.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: VIETNAM MOBIFONE/GROWTH . Keywords: VIETNAM MOBIFONE/GROWTH =2

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