Daiwa to raise stake in Saigon Securities

Daiwa Securities Group Inc., Japan’s second-largest securities firm, may increase its stake in Saigon Securities Inc., Vietnam’s biggest publicly traded brokerage.

Daiwa, which bought a 1.25 percent stake in Saigon Securities in July, is in talks with the company to increase the holding, incoming Chairman Akira Kiyota said in an interview in Tokyo Thursday.

Daiwa wants to strengthen its retail network in Vietnam to underwrite public offerings in one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies, Kiyota said.

The Tokyo-based brokerage aims to raise revenue from Asia outside Japan to 100 billion yen (US$1 billion) in five years’ time, almost 10 times what it makes in the region now.

Japanese financial firms are investing overseas to tap economic expansion in countries including Vietnam, India and China.

Daiwa spokesman Ryoji Fuchinoue said the size of the stake under consideration hasn’t yet been decided.

Nguyen Hong Nam, deputy general director of Ho Chi Minh City-based Saigon Securities, declined to comment.

Daiwa opened its first Vietnamese office in Hanoi in October.

Thanhnien

>   Stock market might get back on its feet – SSC official (07/04/2008)

>   Diversified operations often cloud company perspectives (07/04/2008)

>   Foreign investors pump money into Vietnamese stock market (05/04/2008)

>   BBC: The record date for the second dividend payment 2007 (04/04/2008)

>   HAX: Buy shares of CAMECO (04/04/2008)

>   SHC: The resolution of annual shareholders’ meeting (04/04/2008)

>   VNM: The record date for dividend payment (04/04/2008)

>   LBM: Date for Annual Meeting (04/04/2008)

>   ABT: Listing and trading additional shares (04/04/2008)

>   REE: Result of issuing convertible preference shares (04/04/2008)