Under the latest plan submitted to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, PetroVietnam Oil (PVOIL), Vietnam’s sole crude oil exporter, will sell approximately 65% of its shares to the public.

Cao Hoai Duong, PVOIL’s general director, said that the IPO, which was originally planned for June 2017, will now be delayed to July 2017, “due to unfinished procedures for equitization approval.”

The plan is for PVOIL to sell nearly 50% of its shares to strategic investors, after selling 15% in an initial public offering (IPO) scheduled for this year.

The company did not disclose the strategic investors, but said interested bidders included 10 foreign firms from Japan, South Korea, Russia, Middle East and Southeast Asia, as well as two local investors.

Thus, the government will retain only 35.1% of its shares in PVOIL.  However, despite giving up controlling interest in the company, the government will still have veto power with its 35.1% stake.

PVOIL said the larger public share offering is more attractive compared to Petrolimex, which earlier sold an 8% equity share to Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Energy. Petrolimex currently dominates Vietnam’s fuel retail market, with an estimated 50% market share, compared to PVOIL, which has 22%.

“The plan was built on the basis of the new policy of the Government in Decision No. 58/2016 / QDTTg dated 29/12/2016. Accordingly, the state will not hold controlling shares in PVOIL,” a statement in the company website said.

PVOIL’s consolidated business results for the first four months of 2017 amounts to VND16,000 billion (USD693.9 million), with pretax profit at approximately VND250 billion (USD10.8 million), the company said.