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2007/03/08-13:06
Japanese Investors Seeking Rough Diamonds in Vietnamese Stocks
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By Rie Ishiguro
Tokyo, March 8 (Jiji Press)--To say that Vietnam's stock market is underdeveloped may be an understatement.

On the Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center, the Southeast Asian nation's biggest securities exchange that opened in July 2000, stock trading orders are executed only three times a day, and information is scarce on Vietnamese companies that plan to go public.

Also, English translations are limited on the website of the exchange.
But more and more Japanese investors are putting their money into Vietnamese stocks, hoping that what now looks like an ugly duckling will some day turn into a beautiful swan.

Some people may have hit the jackpot, as the Ho Chi Minh City exchange's main VN stock index soared 2.4-fold in 2006 and the combined market capitalization of all stocks listed on the exchange leaped 25-fold.

The index continues to perform well while the stock markets in many other countries, including Japan, the United States and China, have been languishing recently.

"We are receiving a lot of inquiries about our Vietnamese stock investment trust fund via the Internet and our call centers although we haven't done any advertising," says Tomonori Tsuchiya, an official of Aizawa Securities Co.'s <8708> Planning Department II, noting that public recognition of Vietnamese stocks has been boosted by reports in television programs and magazine articles.

When Aizawa established the Pheim-Aizawa Trust Vietnam Fund last October in tie-up with Singapore's Pheim Asset Management (Asia) Pte Ltd., it collected 1.9 billion yen, nearly double its target of one billion yen. Subscriptions surged since then and stood at 7 billion yen at the end of January this year.

The growing popularity of Vietnamese stocks is backed by the strong growth of the country's economy.

The number of publicly traded Vietnamese firms has shown a rapid rise thanks to the Vietnamese government's drive to privatize state-owned companies as part of its Doi moi economic reform program and its stock market promotion measures, including tax incentives.
The combined number of listed firms on the Ho Chi Minh City exchange and the Hanoi Securities Trading Center stood at 195 as of February, up from about 50 a year before.

"By investing in Vietnam, I'm hoping to not only make profits but also contribute to the country's prosperity," says Akiko Yanai, a 29-year old company employee who has just visited Vietnam to open an account with a brokerage house there. "When I go there, I find scars of the Vietnam War in places. But I can sense its economy will develop further, following in the footsteps of China."

To take advantage of Japanese investors' growing interest, Vietnamese brokerage houses, including BIDV Securities Co. (BSC) and Saigon Securities Inc., now allow Japanese investors to open accounts and have sales representatives fluent in Japanese.

Meanwhile, Japanese brokerages have forged tie-ups with their Vietnamese counterparts. Okasan Holdings Inc. <8609>, for example, has teamed up with BSC, while Japan Asia Securities Co. has invested in Saigon Securities.

But none of big Japanese brokerage houses have tapped the Vietnamese market as it is still underdeveloped and is not fully open to foreigners.

"In size, the market is still too small for big Japanese players" like Nomura Holdings Inc. <8604>, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. <8601> and Nikko Cordial Corp. <8603>, says Nobuhiko Toyoshima of United World Securities Japan K.K., the sole online brokerage house handling Vietnamese stocks in Japan.

Through its tie-up with U.S. investment fund Indochina Capital Corp., United World Securities gathers information on over-the-counter stocks that have yet to debut on stock exchanges and snaps up promising stocks through its investment funds. It has set up five such funds since January last year.

As a major drawback of the Vietnamese stock market, Toyoshima points to its low liquidity, which makes it difficult for investors to trade in individual stocks since small orders may not be executed properly.

Investor Yanai adds that she feels a little insecure because Vietnamese stocks cannot be traded online and it is uncertain whether her personal information is protected properly by the Vietnamese brokerage house, with which she opened the stock trading account.
Kenji Oki, president of Blue Chip Consulting Co., a Japanese investment company centering on Vietnam, cautions that too much money may have already flown into the Vietnamese stock market. "There are effectively no more issues Japanese investors should buy."
"Japanese investors have reaped profits from the booming market, but they may end up with losses when the boom ends," Oki says.

He also says investment opportunities for foreign investors are limited despite a recent spate of initial public offerings in the country, because of the 49 pct ceiling on the foreign ownership of nonfinancial Vietnamese firms.

Blue Chip's investment fund targeting Vietnamese stocks, including unlisted ones, has 600 million yen of assets under its management.

United World Securities' Toyoshima pins hopes on further stock market reform in Vietnam, saying that the envisaged IPO this spring of Vietcombank, the country's oldest commercial bank, may prompt the country's socialist government to take measures to increase market liquidity.

"The market is still in its infancy," he says. "It's young and lively."

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