-
 The
number of unlisted firms raising capital in Vietnam through
public issuance of shares, including equitized SOEs and
joint-stock companies, is in no way small. The vast majority of
the companies held in Bao Viet's investment portfolio are
unlisted. Investors may find it difficult to sell their shares
in unlisted firms due to their low liquidity. The buying and
selling shares of unlisted companies is not secure; this
activity is not adequately regulated. The government should
establish a legal framework to control this unregulated OTC
market. The requirements for companies and transactions on this
informal market should certainly be more relaxed than those for
the STC. This OTC market can also be a place for companies to
get acquaintanced with the STC, should they subsequently wish to
list on the formal stock market.
Mr. Nguyen Hong Tuan
- Deputy Director, Bao Viet Investment Center
-
Vietnam has a stock
market with a value of $145 million dollars, but outside the
stock market there is a billion dollars in shares being bought
and sold. The official stock market has 15,000 investors, but
the unofficial market has about 200,000 investors. It's fair to
say that the unofficial stock market in Vietnam is not small,
and currently, it is not regulated. In other countries, there
are laws protecting investors, which require that if a company
has more than a specific number of shareholders, for example 20
to 30, that company must comply with a law that is really the
same as a securities law. This law exists not only in the United
States, but also in most other Asian countries such as Taiwan,
Hong Kong, and China. So I would say that this unofficial market
is a risk to Vietnam because it is unregulated.
Mr. Dominic Scriven
- Director, Dragon Capital Investment Fund
-
The SSC has plans to
minimize the size of this unofficial market by setting up
another centralized securities trading center for smaller
companies with legal capital above 5 billion dong. There are
some who feel we should establish an over the counter market.
But the problem is that we can only have an official OTC market
if we have "market makers" ready to be active in this market,
and who are willing to buy when there is selling demand, and to
sell when there is buying demand. In our view, this is not yet
feasible at this time, but we have plans to revisit this issue
around 2010.
Mr. Tran Van Dung -
Deputy Director, Office of the State Securities Commission (SSC)
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