At the firm’s general meeting in HCMC on April 20, shareholders gave the go-ahead to the board of directors to work with government agencies over the foreign ownership cap increase plan, which will enable the airline to mobilize more foreign capital. 

 

The Government’s Decree 92/2016/ND-CP provides a number of conditions for foreign involvement in civil aviation services. A single foreign investor can own no more than 30% of a Vietnamese airline’s chartered capital while a controlling stake must be held by a Vietnamese individual or institution.

 

In case there is more than one foreign investor, the combined foreign stake must be capped at 49%, according to the decree, which took effect on July 1, 2016.

 

Shareholders approved Vietjet’s revenue and profit targets at the meeting. Vietjet looks to gross revenue of more than VND42 trillion (around US$1.84 billion) and after-tax profit of over VND3.39 trillion in 2017. It plans to pay a 10% dividend in cash on May 10 this year.

 

The carrier’s revenue and profit last year were VND27.5 trillion and VND2.5 trillion respectively, up 38.6% and 113.2% compared to 2015.   

 

Last year, Vietjet took delivery of 12 more planes, expanding its fleet to 41 aircraft (30 Airbus A320s and 11 Airbus A321s). The carrier transported more than 14 million passengers, up a staggering 50.9% from 2015.

 

Vietjet is expected to have 51 aircraft and transport around 17 million passengers on 98,124 flights this year.

 

Vietjet listed 300 million shares on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange in February and the VJC shares have since been sought after by foreign investors.

 

In January, Vietnam Airlines became one of the biggest firms by market capitalization on UPCoM after it listed more than 1.2 billion shares on the market for unlisted public companies.