Vietjet becomes major shareholder in airport ground services firm

Low-cost carrier Vietjet recently announced it bought 1.7 million shares in Saigon Ground Services JSC (SGN). SGN provides ground services to around 50 airlines at three international airports: Tan Son Nhat, Da Nang and Cam Ranh.

Vietjet had acquired these shares from Investment – Mining – Port JSC, which builds, operates and runs ground services at naval and aerial ports across the country. The value of Vietjet’s acquisition is estimated at VND141 billion ($6.05 million).

The transaction makes Vietjet the third largest shareholder in SGN, behind the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (48 percent), which manages 23 airports in Vietnam, and securities firm Saigon Securities Inc. (nearly 15 percent).

Since it was privatized in early 2015, Saigon Ground Services JSC has raised its charter capital four times, from VND140 billion ($6 million) to approximately VND240 billion ($10.3 million).

Financial reports in recent years show that aviation services account for a major proportion of the company revenue structure, most of which comes from providing ground services, aircraft towing, leasing check-in counters and passenger cars.

In 2018, the company recorded a revenue of nearly VND1.28 trillion ($54.96 million) with pre-tax profits of nearly VND293 billion ($12.58 million).

Earlier this week, Vietjet also revealed plans to launch an e-commerce platform within two years in its push to diversify business interests, using its abundant consumer data, in partnership with banks, hotels and other companies.

The platform will cover banking, insurance and other financial services, as well as hotels and consumer goods, said Vietjet vice chairwoman Nguyen Thi Thuy Binh.