How much is Vinalines worth? The investors’ thoughts now concentrate on the IPO of the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) which would go equitized in the first quarter of 2015.   Vinalines has been found in the list of the state owned economic groups and general corporations which must go equitized in 2014-2015. The Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang has also shown the ministry’s determination to fulfill the equitization soon, which “not only aims to collect money from the stake sale, but also to change the management platform.” However, investors do not know well about Vinalines. What they have heard is that Vinalines is incurring losses, while two of its subsidiaries – Vinashinlines and Falcon – are following the procedures to declare the bankruptcy, but it is still really attractive. Figures make investors confused On Vinalines’ website, investors can read that the corporation made a profit of VND1.241 trillion in 2010, VND62 billion in 2011. However, it took a loss of VND2.439 trillion in 2012. Meanwhile, there is no figure about profit in 2013. As such, if referring to the information on the website, the corporation began taking loss in 2012. Meanwhile, the Report No. 146/BC-CP dated June 12, 2012 submitted by the government to the National Assembly showed that the general corporation met big difficulties in 2011, when it incurred the loss of VND434 billion after it made a profit of VND142 billion in 2010 and VND317 billion in 2009. As such, if referring to the government’s report, the corporation began taking loss in 2011. In another document – the government inspectors’ report about Vinalines’ capital use, management and total assets in 2007-2010, one can read that Vinalines took a loss of VND412 billion in 2009 and VND1.274 trillion in 2010, a very big loss. As such, if referring to the government inspectors’ report, Vinalines began incurring a loss in 2009 already. The different statistics released by different sources have made investors puzzled. They cannot find the answer to the question how big the Vinalines’ accumulated loss is. What are Vinalines’ debts like? The government’s Report No. 146 showed that by the end of 2011, Vinalines’ total debts had reached VND43.135 trillion, including VND9.309 trillion worth of short term debts. Unable to pay debts, Vinalines has to negotiate for the debt restructuring. Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang reported at the November 2013’s National Assembly’s meeting that Vinalines had restructured VND7.885 trillion worth of debts at BIDV. Meanwhile, it had successfully negotiated with the other creditors on the delays of debt payment. In the latest news, at the working session with the Ministry of Transport on February 24, Vinalines affirmed that it had drawn up the plan on restructuring the VND54.7 trillion debts incurred by the holding company and subsidiaries, and restructured the $196 million loans with foreign credit institutions and restructured the VND43 trillion loans with domestic banks. The question about Vinalines’ total assets Analysts believe that the assets of the corporations mostly lie in its fleet and sea ports. The northern ports, namely Doan Xa and Dinh Vu, have been operating well with the profits sometimes equivalent to 100 percent of their chartered capital. The ports in the central and southern regions have been less profitable, but satisfactory, despite the shipping crisis. Meanwhile, there is not much information about the current situation of its fleet after a lot of purchase and sale deals made recently. US$1 = VND21,000 TBKTSG