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46 companies could be moved to Hanoi bourse on capital size
The securities regulator plans to move a quarter of the companies on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange to the smaller Hanoi bourse after they failed to meet capital targets.
Firms that failed to raise their registered capital to more than VND80 billion (US$4.6 million) and do not have plans to increase the figure would be forced to move to the Hanoi Securities Trading Center by May 8, the State Securities Commission said.
Forty-six companies are on the list, Nguyen Son, the Hanoi-based head of market development at the commission, said by phone.
Vietnamese stocks plunged last year, making HCMC’s VN-Index Asia’s worst performer, as the government tightened monetary policy to tackle rampant inflation and the global meltdown spread.
The value of stocks on the country’s two exchanges fell 53 percent last year to VND225 trillion, Vu Bang, chairman of the State Securities Commission, said last week.
“The new measures will make Vietnam’s stock markets more easily accessible,” Le Ba Hoang Quang, head of research at Sacombank Securities Inc., the brokerage unit of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank, said.
“Investors who want to invest in large-cap companies will focus on the Ho Chi Minh bourse while people who want to invest in small companies will focus more on Hanoi.”
Register plans
The companies affected by the ruling could register plans to increase their capital with the commission and would be required to move to the Hanoi bourse if they fail to meet that plan within six months starting February 8, Son said.
Companies on the Hanoi bourse with registered capital exceeding VND80 billion and profits for two successive years can apply to move to the HCMC exchange, the commission said.
Firms listed on the Hanoi exchange that cannot meet the capital requirement will be required to move to the UPCoM, which is a market for trading unlisted stocks.
But the inauguration of the market has been delayed since the government has not decided on foreign ownership rate, according to Nguyen Thi Hoang Lan, a Hanoi Securities Trading Center official.
So if the market does not open within three months, those companies would be allowed to remain listed on the Hanoi bourse but shall be placed under scrutiny, SSC said.
ThanhNien, Bloomberg
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