The Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) and 28 other companies in the transport sector expect to finish their equitisation process by the end of the year, according to the Transport Ministry. Nguyen Canh Tinh, Vinalines' Deputy General Director, said the corporation had completed its plan for equitising the corporation and now awaited the Prime Minister's approval for the same. Vinalines expects to have its initial public offering (IPO) in the third quarter of this year. This year, the corporation would equitise its five member companies, namely the ports of Nghe Tinh, Can Tho, Nam Can, Cam Ranh and Saigon. Tinh said Vinalines had formulated equitisation plans for its all 12 member companies in keeping with its restructure plan approved by the Prime Minister. The corporation has withdrawn its capital worth 1.25 trillion VND (56.5 million USD) from 11 enterprises in the first half of this year. This year, the corporation has so far withdrawn 1.8 trillion VND (81.4 million USD) from 32 companies. However, Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said at the ministry's meeting on restructure and equipment of transport enterprises on August 17 that equitisation at Vinalines had been still slow, especially when it comes to withdrawal of capital at Nha Trang and Son Tra ports. Thang said this week, the ministry's Enterprise Management Department must explain equitisation activities at Vinalines to report to the Prime Minister. According to Vinalines, in the first half of this year, its parent corporation made a profit of 124 billion VND (5.6 million USD) but as a whole Vinalines, including the parent and subsidiaries, still faced a loss of 197 billion VND (8.9 million USD) in the first half of the year. Vinalines said it had three transport enterprises that were not in debt. Meanwhile, the remaining transport enterprises had had huge losses and therefore, in the first half, they witnessed growth in revenue but had to pay their debt. Moreover, the local transport market faced a downfall in freight and there was not sign of recovery in the freight. To solve such difficulties, Vinalines had intensified its search for foreign and local partners to develop its logistics services, it said. Meanwhile, Thang said Vinalines should further restructure itself, including the equitisation process and withdrawal of capital to make recovery in the coming time. Vinalines must review production and business activities, increase its capacity and reduce production costs. It must also renew its enterprise management and operation of seaports. During the meeting on August 17, the ministry's Enterprises Management Department said the ministry had set up a steering committee for equitisation at 28 companies after obtaining approval for the equitisation plans for these companies. The ministry had approved the timing for evaluating 26 other enterprises and choosing consultants for the purpose, including the Corporation for Investment, Development and Management of Cuu Long Transport Infrastructure Project, 24 subsidiaries of Vietnam Railway Corporation and Nam Thang Long Hospital. It had completed IPO of six enterprises and converted 17 enterprises into joint stock companies.-VNA