9% of Vinamilk's stake up for sale this year Nine percent of Vinamilk will go on sale in early December according to the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC).   Vinamilk Tower in HCM City The information was announced by Nguyen Chi Thanh, deputy director of SCIC on November 21 in HCM City. 130.6 million Vinamilk shares will be listed at the HCM City Stock Exchange. Investors can register for bidding at Saigon Securities Inc. and deposit 10% of the starting price. The deposit will be returned within three days if the investors fail in their bid. SCIC will continue to hold meetings to determine the starting price. However, there are opinions that SCIC needs more than one auction agent to provide a wider access to various investors. In addition, the announcement was announced at short notice so many investors may not have the time to register. The starting price will be announced from November 23 to December 2. Vinamilk's shares closed at VND138,500 (USD6.14) on November 21. Nguyen Duc Chi, chairman of SCIC, said they had received the complaints and would work to make the auction more accessible. Vinamilk is one of the biggest dairy companies in South East Asia with 13 plants and 15,000 cows. It has 243 dedicated distributors and is available at 215,000 retail stores in Vietnam. It accounted for 49% of Vietnam’s milk market in 2015 while competing with various brands such as FrieslandCampina, Abbot, MeadJohnson, Nestle and Moc Chau. Vinamilk products are also being distributed in 43 countries. nld