Vietnam to open second stock market in January
Vietnam plans to open its second stock market next month to speed up the equitization of state-owned businesses, said a government official Tuesday Dec. 28.
The bourse in Hanoi is also part of Vietnam's drive to boost the capital market as the country's first exchange, set up in 2000, has just 26 stocks valued at 245 million USD, far smaller than the bourses in Thailand and Malaysia.
"The Finance Ministry is quickening preparation so that after the Hanoi exchange starts operation, slated for late January 2005, the pilot share auctioning for companies being equitized will be at both the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City markets," said Deputy Finance Minister Le Thi Bang Tam as quoted by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
Many state-run firms have completed preparations for IPOs (initial public offerings), but have been reluctant to list.
Government figures show 615 companies were equitized in the first nine months of this year, or 42 per cent of firms targeted to undergo the process in 2004.
More to come
Brokers and investors said a lack of transparency and liquidity, curbs on the level of foreign ownership – now 30 per cent of a listed firm – and the small size of the listings had been key to the slow development of the first bourse.
Tam said the finance ministry had sought government approval to change the ruling on foreign ownership.
In May, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said Vietnam would soon scrap the 30-per cent cap as the country was committed to join the World Trade Organization by the end of 2005 and had been accelerating negotiations over entry.
In July, Vu Bang, deputy chairman of the State Securities Commission, told Reuters the market in Hanoi would cater to small- and medium-sized firms, with the inaugural list of up to 15 stocks of companies capitalized at up to 3.2 million USD.
The finance ministry issued a circular last Friday, widening the scope of state companies subject to equitization to include commercial banks and financial companies in which the state does not hold a 100 per cent stake, Deputy Finance Minister Tam said.
(Source: Reuters)
Story from Thanh Nien News
Published: 29 December, 2004, 23:04:38 (GMT+7)
Copyright Thanh Nien News
