49% foreign owned companies denied foreign bourses

Nguyen Ngoc Canh, Head of the International Cooperation Department under the State Securities Commission (SSC), has confirmed that 49% foreign owned companies will not be allowed to list on foreign bourses.

Mr Canh has said that there is no more room in most big companies, and opportunities to list on foreign bourses belong to smaller enterprises. He said that many small companies can meet the requirements for listing on foreign bourses.
The latest statistics from SSC show that foreign investors hold 21% of shares listed on the stock market on average.

Mr Canh said that many foreign stock exchanges had come to ask for cooperation with Vietnam. “This shows that they are very interested in Vietnam’s stock market, and the cooperation would benefit both sides,” he said.

Yusli Mohamed Yusoff, Managing Director of Bursa Stock Exchange in Malaysia, said that in order to list on the country’s official stock market, enterprises had to have the capitalisation volume of Ringit1bil, or $250mil and the post tax profit of $15mil a year at the lowest. Bursa has a smaller market for young companies which have the capital of $500,000.

However, Mr Yusoff said that Bursa would consider the companies and their capability to licence the listing, while the $250mil is not a must.

According to Mr Yusoff, five Vietnamese companies are seeking to list on the Malaysian market, because the market has the lowest level listing fee in the region. Meanwhile, the market attracts investors from all over the world, especially from the Middle East. One-third of the transactions there are being carried out by international investors.

The Government of Malaysia does not control foreign currency sources and foreign exchange rates; therefore, enterprises are able to transfer profit abroad without any difficulties.

Source: VNE