LS C&S Asia, a holding company of LS Cable & System`s two Vietnam-based locally incorporated operations, LS-VINA and LS CV, will be listed in South Korea’s main bourse Korean Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) next month.

“We would achieve 1 trillion won ($890 million) in sales in 2021 compared with 490 billion won last year and become the best cable company in Southeast Asia beyond Vietnam,” said CEO Myung Roh-hyun in a press conference held at Grand Plaza Hanoi Hotel in Vietnam last Thursday. “As Vietnam has seen its power demand increase more than 10 percent every year with economic growth rate of more than 6 percent, investors should make investments in growing companies in the growing country,” he added.

LS C&S Asia is a special purpose company set up by LS C&S in May last year for the listing of the two operations on the Kospi. Its initial public offering for 12.65 million shares will be available for retail investors on September 8 and 9 to go listed in September 22. It is the first case for a Vietnamese operation of a Korean company to be listed on the Korean market as a holding company.

Its desired bid price is between 10,000 won and 15,000 won per share. LS C&S would sell 8.44 million shares. LS C&S Asia would also increase capital by issuing new 1.42 million stocks.

LS-VINA established in port city Haiphong, east of Hanoi, in 1996, had been on the verge of shutdown because of trouble with a partner company and economic crisis of Southeast Asia. With intensive restructuring, however, the company has successfully localized in 10 years and was awarded a labor medal by the Vietnamese Government. Among 430 employees, only three are Korean - head of the operation and those in charge of management and sales. Vietnamese workers handle almost all businesses including production, product design, sales, planning and accounting. Annual sales of the operation jumped more than 250 times to 490 billion won in 2015 from 1.9 billion won at the initial stage. It has 30 percent market share, ranking first in the industry.

By Kim Hyo-hye

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