Vietnam Itaco to raise 2008 profit, list abroad

HANOI, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Vietnam's Tan Tao Investment Industry Corp ITA.HM (Itaco) said on Monday it aims to raise its net profit by at least 62 percent this year and plans an overseas listing.

It expected a net profit of at least 600 billion dong ($37.3 million), up from 371 billion dong last year, a 149 percent rise from 2006, Itaco said in a statement issued through the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .VNI.

Itaco planned to double its registered capital to 2 trillion dong this year and list shares on an overseas market, the statement said without elaboration.

Several Vietnamese companies, including Vinamilk VNM.HM, the second-largest listed firm after Sacombank STB.HM, have said they plan to list abroad this year but none of the plans has been finalised.

Shares in Itaco, the first industrial park developer listed in Vietnam, rose 3.13 percent to 132,000 dong ($8.2) on Monday, valuing the firm at $820 million, the eighth largest of the 144 companies listed on the exchange.

Itaco has been operating the Tan Tao industrial park in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's business centre, since 1997.

Last August, the firm and London-listed Vietnam Infrastructure Limited fund (VNIq.L) said they would build an $800 million coal-fired power plant in the Mekong Delta province of Long An.

Itaco is also branching out into highway and residential property development. ($1=16,099 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Michael Battye)