VTC is attempting to take the place of FPT to purchase EVN Telecom’s stakes, Buu dien quoted from its sources.

The Prime Minister has recently approved a plan to sell 49 percent of EVN Telecom’s stakes to the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technologies FPT. After the plan was approved in principle from the Prime Minister, the two sides have kicked off the negotiation. While the trade affair has yet to be settled, sources have said that FPT has become less interested in the affair, while VTC has shown its willingness to replace FPT to purchase EVN Telecom’s stakes.

After FPT has a new Chief Executive Officer - Truong Dinh Anh, opinions from a well informed circle said the group has changed its decisions about purchasing EVN Telecom’s stakes. Prior to that, Nguyen Thanh Nam, the then CEO of FPT, also admitted that it was really a risky move to invest in telecom and investors should be adventurous and inject money in the telecom market. He also said that if no high consensus could be reached, investors would experience defeat in such cases.

Local newspapers have reported that the purchase of EVN Telecom’s stakes would be reconsidered under “Truong Dinh Anh’s administration”. The newly appointed CEO of FPT has been well known as a cautious person who always thoroughly considers investment efficiency, and will give up projects which do not bring profit.

According to Buu dien, EVN Telecom and FPT still have not reached any agreement on the stake transfer deal because the two sides still cannot reach any consensus in settling EVN Telecom’s debts. In the current situation, if FPT does not think carefully, it may be bogged down with a deal expected to be worth trillions of dong.

Answering Buu dien on March 31, 2011, a manager of FPT said: “The negotiation between FPT and EVN Telecom has been carried out over the last six months. However, as many new things have come up, we are reconsidering the issue and we will release decisions soon”.

Some analysts said that if FPT unilaterally gives up the plan to purchase EVN Telecom’s stakes, it would lose the deposit money. However, when mentioning the issue, a manager of FPT said: “We do not think so. Every contract includes many provisions which clearly stipulate duties and benefits in each case. We agreed to purchase 60 percent of EVN Telecom’s stakes, but the State has only allowed EVN to sell 49 percent of stakes. This does not come in line with the initial agreement inked by the two sides. Besides, we have not reached any agreements on the provisions relating to finance and trade problems”.

In fact, after the Prime Minister released the decision, EVN frankly said that EVN does not want to hold controlling stakes in the telecom company, because it needs to muster strength on developing power projects. At a recent meeting with the Ministry of Information and Communications (MOIC), Dao Van Hung, Chair of EVN’s Board of Members, said that EVN does not want to hold the controlling stakes in the telecom company.

While everything has not yet come to and end, sources have said that VTC has jumped on the bandwagon and has replaced FPT on the negotiation table. However, the problem is that VTC does not intend to buy such a high proportion of stakes like FPT, and it only wants 12 percent of stakes of EVN Telecom.

However, VTC has not confirmed the news. Answering Buu dien on March 31, Le Kha Dan, Deputy General Director of VTC said: “VTC is not making any official statement on the issue at this moment”.

Last month, in a working session with Dao Van Hung, Chair of the Board of Member of EVN, Le Kha Dan suggested setting up a joint venture that will exploit EVN’s infrastructure.

Nguyen Hoang Phong, Director of VTC Digicom, a subsidiary of VTC, has also suggested that EVN should not jump into the telecom sector and should focus on infrastructure development.

As such, it proves to be a tough process for EVN Telecom to find suitable partners. Meanwhile, it wants to speed up the stake sale.

“EVN Telecom needs to speed up equitization as the firm is facing some financial problems,” said a senior official of the company. “We are seeking investors - strategic partners with leadership in technology and the ability to rescue EVN Telecom with GSM technology”.

Buu Dien