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Stock market to welcome 3 big banking and insurance names
Vietcombank, Vietinbank and Bao Viet, the three giants in their fields, have announced plans to enter the bourse this year, which has drawn the applause of investors.
Secretary General of the Vietnam Association of Financial Investors (VAFI) Nguyen Hoang Hai expressed satisfaction about the news. Hai believes that the three big corporations will provide valuable commodities for the stock market which are now lacking.
Prior to that, VAFI many times sent documents to the stock market’s watchdog agencies, suggesting that it was necessary to bring the five big enterprises with the market capitalisation value at some 1 billion dollars to the bourse, namely Vietcombank, Vietinbank (banking), Habeco, Sabeco (brewery) and MobiFone (mobile service provider).
Currently, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) is still leading the market in terms of market capitalisation value, at 26,400 billion dong. However, there will be changes in the rankings once Vietcombank lists on the bourse. The bank’s chartered capital is double the chartered capital of ACB.
The information about the plan of the three giants to list on the bourse has been hailed by investors. Tran Tien Dung, an investor on SBS trading floor, said that he puts high hopes on the listing plans. “There are currently not many attractive share items available for investors. Therefore, this is really good news,” he said.
He went on to say that Vietnam’s stock market, in the eyes of many foreign investors, is a small market with very few companies which have capitalisation values big enough for them to invest in. Therefore, the appearance of the valuable commodities on the market will help attract more foreign investors.
The attractiveness of the three corporations is that they have not sold stakes to foreign investors yet; therefore, the room for foreign investors remains very large. Under the current regulations, the ceiling foreign ownership ratio in these enterprises is 30 percent.
In early April, Vietcombank got permission in principle to list shares at the HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE). The bank has announced it will list on the bourse in 2009, but has not revealed the exact day of its debut.
Meanwhile, Vietinbank, has said that it is seeking permission from the shareholders’ meeting to be held in June about the listing of six percent of chartered capital on the bourse. Bao Viet insurance has also applied to list all of its 56 million shares at HOSE.
It is expected that Vietcombank, which has the biggest capital level, will get the most attention from the public when it hits the bourse, while the bank’s shares will have big impacts on the transactions on the market. The bank’s debut price will be used as a reference for other bank share items.
“If Vietcombank’s shares trade well after it makes its debut, the prices of other bank shares will rise accordingly,” said Dung.
However, according to Dung, transactions of Vietcombank shares also depend on the interests of foreign investors. The bank now has advantages in brand name and a high market share in card services and foreign currency trading.
VietNamNet, VNE
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