The Government has approved the transformation of the state-owned holding company Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation (PetroVietnam) into a so-called ‘one-member limited liability company’ owned by the State.

Under the Business Law that goes into effect on July 1, state enterprises that have not yet been equitized (issued shares) must become ‘one-member limited liability companies.’ The ‘one-member’ is the state. PetroVietnam is the first state-owned group announcing its change into this form.

The new company will inherit rights, duties and interests of PetroVietnam. Its Chairmanship and memberships of PetroVietnam’s management board will be maintained until the PM makes new decisions.

The company’s major business areas are research, exploration and exploition, transportation, and processing of oil and gas, import and export of oil and gas equipment, oil and gas products, petrochemistry, exploiting coal and minerals abroad, and production of renewable energies.

PetroVietnam also operates in the fields of finance and banking, securities, insurance and real estate. A company source told VOV that the restructured firm will gradually curb external investments and focus more on production.

It also plans to turn the PetroVietnam Gas Corporation and the Petec Trading and Investment Corporation into joint stock companies, finish a project to change the Vietsovpetro Joint Venture’s forms of operation, and list the shares of several of its subsidiaries on the stock market. PetroVietnam will retain 51 percent of the shares of its subsidiary companies that produce strategic products which can affect the national economy, but may sell off majority interest in other firms, for example its construction and drilling mud subsidiaries.

By the end of 2009, PetroVietnam had nearly 183 trillion dong of capital, earned total revenue of 23.79 trillion. In 2008-2009, its pre-tax profit was 38.64 trillion. It aims to raise its chartered capital to 500 trillion dong by 2015 and annual growth rate of revenue at 20-25 percent.