Enterprises to be Allowed to Set Share Price for Foreign Investors

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Dec. 3 – Companies choosing to equitize shares will soon be allowed to set their own prices for preferred foreign investors instead of following the initial public offering average price.

The government will revised Decree 109 to accommodate companies who already have a preferred foreign investor in mind. Deputy head of the Steering Committee on Enterprises Renovation and Development, Pham Viet Muon, told Vietnam Net during the Vietnam Business Forum that foreign investors and equitized enterprises can negotiate sale prices of the enterprises and investors can purchase stakes before the enterprises make IPOs.

Following present regulations, prices for shares sold to foreign strategic investors are required to be of the average IPO price because most of them are still state-owned.

This pricing method is being contested by foreign investors reasoning that the price is too high considering they are giving enterprises the advantage of  corporate governance and management technology.

Vietnam has so far equitized 4,000 state-owned enterprises with the government maintaining 53 percent of total chartered capital although there are plans to eventually decrease that amount to 20 percent.

In other equitized enterprises, the government still holds majority shares like the Bank for Foreign Trade ofVietnam and Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Bank.