Vietnamese private airline VietJet Air (VJA) is finalizing necessary paperwork for its coming initial public offering (IPO), which is scheduled to be launched in Vietnam by the end 2015, a source from the carrier told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday.

Audit work in preparation for the IPO of the budget airline is being completed so that the firm can begin selling its shares to the public in Vietnam, instead of in an overseas market like Hong Kong or Singapore as previously planned, the source said.

At a meeting of the private airline in Ho Chi Minh on Sunday, VJA CEO Luu Duc Khanh said the company earned more than VND5.7 trillion (US$255 million), a 205 percent year-on-year surge, in the first six months of 2015.

Also at the event, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) awarded the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) safety certificate to the company.

The IOSA program is an internationally recognized and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline.

At the beginning of this year, in an interview with local newswire VnExpress, a representative of the firm said the private carrier would choose either Hong Kong or Singapore to sell shares to the public for the first time.

The company expects to gain $800 million through the IPO, Khanh told the Wall Street Journal in January.

Earlier, in an interview with Bloomberg, the VJA chief officer said the carrier would kick off the IPO after it yielded profits, and could select Hong Kong or Singapore as the venue for the public offering.

The proceeds from the IPO will be used for VJA’s new aircraft purchase plan.

The state-run national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, which holds the biggest share of the country’s aviation market, launched its IPO at the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange in November last year.

Over 49 million shares were sold at the public offering, representing 3.475 percent of the carrier’s charter capital.

After the IPO, the state still maintains a controlling 75 percent stake in Vietnam Airlines.

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