With the value of 6.2 billion Singapore dollars by November, the IPO market in Vietnam unexpectedly surpassed Singapore in IPO value (715 million Singapore dollar) to lead the Southeast Asian market, according to Deloitte.

Vietnam made up more than half of the total IPO value in Southeast Asia.  Number 1 position for the year will belong to Vietnam, as there is only one month ahead.

The huge IPO deals which contributed to the achievement include those of Vinhomes, a subsidiary of the Vingroup conglomerate, and the share issuance by Techcombank. 

Deloitte’s report said the emergence of Vietnam’s capital market is the result of the government’s policies on speeding up equitization and market restructuring. This has been associated with an increase in interest from foreign investors and domestic funds. In addition, the expected high GDP growth rate in 2018 is also an accelerator.

Meanwhile, the figure in Singapore is discouraging, especially when compared with the 4.6 billion Singapore dollars worth of IPO value in 2018.

According to experts, political conflict, trade wars and unfavorable macro conditions all have affected this year’s IPO plans by enterprises, especially large corporations.

This year’s encouraging results, plus the strong flow of foreign capital to Vietnam, will contribute to a good year in 2019. This may prompt domestic enterprises to cancel the listing overseas once they realize that capital in Vietnam is still plentiful.

FTSE Russell recently put Vietnam on its watchlish to be upgraded into an emerging stock market. 

Meanwhile, a study by Bain & Company showed that 90 percent of private investors consider Vietnam and Indonesia as the hottest markets in ASEAN over the next 12 months.

According to the firm, the value of the investments in the two countries amounted to 20 percent of total regional investment value in the last five years.
 
Besides good macroeconomic conditions, the trade war initiated by the US and China will also serve as the ‘catalyst’ for foreign capital to head for Vietnam.

The total FDI capital registered in the first 11 months of the year reached $30.8 billion.

“I think the trade war will drive FDI flow to Vietnam as companies try to relocate their production bases to Vietnam. This will be associated with the opportunity to boost exports. Vietnam will benefit in the short term,” said Don Lam, CEO of VinaCapital.
 
According to the Ministry of Finance, 12 SOEs with the total value of VND29.747 trillion were equitized in the first 11 months of 2018.

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