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Equitized companies to be forced onto exchange
The State Securities Commission will force equitized companies to list on the stock exchange to increase their share trading liquidity and transparency.
“The aim is to protect the shareholders,” SSC chairman Vu Bang said on Monday at the Vietnam Business Forum in Ho Chi Minh City, without giving a timeframe.
Nguyen Hai Son of FPT Securities Co. welcomed the move and said listing would boost liquidity.
“Shareholders, especially institutional investors, will find it easier to buy large parcels of shares in the big state-owned companies that have been equitized, and to sell their holdings quickly to book profits,” he said.
Dominic Scriven, director of fund manager Dragon Capital, said many state-owned companies that had been equitized for a long time had intentionally put off listing because of the market’s swan dive last year.
He also noted the slack equitization of state-owned companies, which has been treading water for more than a year.
He said it was time to speed up equitization, but the government should ensu re that the companies to be equitized were reasonably evaluated in line with other emerging markets.
Responding to Scriven, deputy finance minister Tran Xuan Ha said he assumed equitized companies were “a bit late” with their listing due to the stock market’s nosedive earlier.
“Now that the market is rallying, it’s a good time for them to start listing their shares,” he said.
At the conference, the Capital Markets Working Group chaired by Scriven questioned the influence of the State Capital Investment Corporation as it manages a huge number of shares bought early this year in an “urgent measure” ordered by the government to stabilize the stock market.
“The role of the State Capital Investment Corporation should be clarified,” the group said.
Since the government’s investment arm is in effect an institutional investor, the group said, it must publicize its shares transactions as required by law.
The Capital Markets Working Group is comprised of fund managers, bankers and other financial types, and works closely with the Ministry of Finance, the State Securities Commission and the State Bank of Vietnam.
thanhnien, DTCK
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