A busy year for corporate listings this year promises to offer huge opportunities for investors. The latest data from the Ha Noi Stock Exchange state that 10 enterprises will list this month, while 20 companies are awaiting the bourse's approval to list shares. Meanwhile, in HCM City, 19 companies have received listing approval, but have yet to do so.
Nguyen Quang Man, Chairman of Song Hong Corporation, said it had planned to list late last year but that conditions had not been favourable. Instead, the company planned to list early this year, he said.
Pham Ngoc Phu, An Thanh Securities' director, said the backlog in listings was due to the newly revised Securities Law which stipulates that a public company must list shares on an official bourse within a year of its initial public offering.
Many State-owned corporations are now ready to equitise. Vinachem plans to equitise six companies, Song Da Corporation is looking to equitise nine, while Petrolimex is awaiting detailed Government instruction on equitisation.
Nguyen Kim Toan, head of the corporate restructuring department at the Government Office, said the Government had been urging State-owned enterprises to submit their equitisation plans while the Finance Ministry had been asked to finalise the revised circular on State-owned corporate equitisation.
The Government would soon issue a detailed instruction on corporate equitisation, she added.
Le Hai Tra, a member of the HCM City Stock Exchange's management board, said corporate readiness to list would help boost capital inflows.
However, the quality of investment options should be increased and distributed among different markets, Tra said.
Nguyen Hoang Hai, General Secretary of the Viet Nam Association of Financial Investors, said market regulators should try to deter price manipulation.
He said recent price manipulation had stemmed from SMEs lacking transparency. A reasonable distribution of stocks would improve market quality, he said.
The State Securities Commission's finalised draft on companies looking to list in HCM City requires them to have a charter capital of at least VND120 billion (US$5.7 million), compared to the current VND80 billion.
Meanwhile, Ha Noi listed companies will have to have a charter capital of at least VND30 billion ($1.4 million), compared to the current VND10 billion.