Some heavyweights listed in Vietnam have unveiled plans to list in Singapore possibly in 2008.

Beating others to a Singapore listing will be leading dairy producer, Vinamilk, which will next year become the first Vietnamese firm to list overseas.

It will be followed by tech giant, FPT.

Le Thi Bang Tam, chairwoman of the State Capital Investment Corp – a state agency set up to reallocate funds earmarked for restructured state-owned enterprises – confirmed plans for the two listings on the sidelines of an investment conference in Singapore recently.

Potential firms

Tam said Vinamilk was a favourite among foreign investors because of its solid performance.

The company, which holds 75 percent of the dairy market, is valued at US$930 million.

It has also invested in other businesses like packaging company V-Pack and infrastructure and property projects.

FPT’s stock soared 150 percent over the gray market price upon its debut on the Ho Chi Minh City bourse last week.

In October it sold a 10 percent stake for $36.5 million to Texas Pacific Group, a private-equity fund, and Intel Capital, a unit of chipmaker Intel.

In other international listing efforts Cavico Corp., a Vietnamese construction conglomerate, is preparing to have its shares listed in the US.

In April it entered into an asset purchase agreement with Agent155 Media Group, a US provider of multimedia content management tools.

Vietnam’s stock market watchdog, the State Securities Commission, said Kinh Do Corp., Saigon Securities Incorporated (SSI), Trung Nguyen coffee group and some 50 other companies had sought information about procedures for foreign listing.

Nguyen Hoang Ha, general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Financial Investors, said these companies would benefit from listing abroad in terms of raising funds and applying international corporate governance standards.

Foreigners’ interest

Last week a Singapore Stock Exchange mission flew to Vietnam to participate in a listing ceremony held for SSI at the Hanoi securities market.

Its members were hoping to learn more about SSI after hearing it was planning to list in Singapore.

UBO Asia, a giant Singaporean securities firm, came to Vietnam in March to meet firms expecting to list in Singapore.

Earlier the Republic of Korea Stock Exchange organized a workshop in Vietnam to discuss opportunities for raising funds in that country.

Kang Kwang Ha, its director, said there was interest in his country in attracting Vietnamese firms.

Source: Thanh Nien, VnExpress