Vietnamese Firms Urged to List Shares Overseas

More enterprises should try to list shares overseas as a more effective channel for raising capital, local newspaper Vietnam News on Tuesday quoted a local securities official as saying.

At a conference entitled A Step into Globalization through IPOs and Listing in Hanoi on Monday, Nguyen Ngoc Canh, head of the International Cooperation Department under the State Securities Commission, said Vietnamese enterprises have tended to list shares on regional stock exchanges like Singapore's due to political, cultural and business affinity.

Foreign companies currently represent about 38 percent of listed shares on the Singapore Stock Exchange. This number suggests that the Singapore Stock Exchange is a very good destination for domestic firms seeking to list abroad, he said.

However, Vietnamese firms are facing many difficulties in listing on foreign stock markets due to their inexperience on the domestic bourse and lack of information about regional stock exchanges. As a result, many Vietnamese enterprises with initial plans on offshore listing, including Vinamilk and Saigon Securities Inc., have yet to carry out their plans, he said.

Vietnamese companies will explore and seek various means to tap into international capital for funding as well as a platform to expand and integrate into the international business community, said Alvin Chew, executive director of Singapore-based financial advisory firm ICH.

Vietnam currently has 151 kinds of listed shares, 375 kinds of listed bonds, mostly government bonds, and three listed investment funds totaling 102,150 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 6.4 billion U.S. dollars), according to the latest statistics from the State Securities Commission.



 



Source: CRIEnglish