Hanoi hopes to raise billions by selling stakes in brewers

[HANOI] SLOSHED back at rowdy open-air bia hoi day and night, beer is Vietnam's tipple of choice and now its cash-strapped government is drawing on the nation's penchant for lager to raise billions of dollars by selling stakes in state-owned brewers.

The unprecedented divestments in two state crown jewels, the makers of the much-glugged Saigon and Hanoi beers, are expected to net as much as US$2.2 billion.

The sale comes as part of long-promised reforms to privatise bloated state firms, which official figures show contributed about one third of the country's GDP last year.