The Central Transport Hospital on October 21 received 116.8 billion VND (5.2 million USD) after selling 4.95 million shares during its' initial public offering (IPO) at the Hanoi Stock Exchange. That number of shares was equal to 29.5 percent of the hospitals chartered capital after it completed equitisation, which could be up to 435.5 billion VND (19.35 million USD) from 168 billion VND (7.5 million USD) this year. The State will hold 73 percent of the hospitals capital after the equitisation and will reduce its ownership in the hospital to 30 percent in the future. The hospital received the lowest price of 10,000 VND and the highest of 26,000 VND for its shares. Average price was 23,597 VND per share. Thirty-three investors participated in the IPO and offered to buy more than 11.7 million shares from the hospital, nearly 2.5 times the number of shares offered by the hospital. Five million shares were sold to one individual investor and one organisation. Le Tuyen Hong Duong, the hospital's deputy director, said that the IPO was a good move as the hospital was trying to comply with the Government's policies on equitisation of state-owned businesses. Customers would receive the same benefits and better products and services at the hospital after it completed being equitised, he said, adding that the successful IPO would motivate other state-owned businesses to speed up their transformation. As a leading hospital in the transport sector with 60 years of experience, the Central Transport Hospital has 363 beds, providing healthcare services for 500,000 individuals and 11,000 inpatients each year.-VNA