VietNamNet Bridge - Over 70 percent of the 355 million shares offered for the first time by state-owned enterprises could not find a buyer in the past three months.

According to VnExpress, by March 31, the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchanges had held auctions for shares of 25 state-owned companies in their initial public offerings (IPOs). That’s a threefold increase over the same period last year. About 75 percent of the shares were offered in Hanoi.

In total, more than 355 million shares were offered for sale but over 70 percent of the volume, equivalent to some VND2,529 billion (over $120.4 million) at par value, was unsalable.

Officials of several firms admit that, in many cases, a hasty equitization process was the main cause of the unsuccessful sales of shares. Some suggest other reasons: that the prices set for the shares were higher than their real values; that these firms are not strong; and that they did a poor job of advertising their IPOs.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang Lan, Vice Chair of the Management Board and Deputy General Director of the Hanoi Stock Exchange, says the sales of IPO shares is not the key goal of the government’s program to speed up equitization. Lan says the most important objective is that, after selling shares to the public, these firms will transform their operating models, change their ownership structure, innovate their operations and have more opportunities in business strategy.

She revealed that the Hanoi Exchange is developing a plan to combine IPOs with the unlisted share market to shorten the listing time.

Na Son