HANOI, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) is seeking to make its initial public offering (IPO) in mid-2018, with an expected chartered capital of 630 million U.S. dollars, Vietnam News Agency reported on Sunday.

From being on the verge of bankruptcy five years ago with a negative equity of over 5 trillion Vietnamese dong (220 million U.S. dollars), state-owned Vinalines has transformed to be eligible for equitization with total assets of over 18 trillion Vietnamese dong (790 million U.S. dollars).

Vinalines made total revenues of nearly 16 trillion Vietnamese dong (720 million U.S. dollars) in 2017, of which 7.1 trillion Vietnamese dong came from maritime service. Port operation and shipping services each accounted for more than 4.4 trillion Vietnamese dong.

Meanwhile, consolidated profit was estimated at 515 billion Vietnamese dong, the highest in the last five years of implementing the restructuring process. (22,600 Vietnamese dong = 1 U.S dollars)