Many firms set to list on UPCOM this year

The Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) is expected to welcome many companies in 2019, with many already announcing plans to trade their shares on the bourse this year.

Right at the start of the year, UPCoM welcomed the first company, Lao Cai Gold Joint Stock Company (GLC), which has a free float of 10.5 million shares. It is the first gold mining company to trade in the stock market.

On January 17, the Construction Consultation Joint Stock Company for Maritime Building listed on UPCoM at a reference price of VND34,500.

Market observers said that many more companies have already outlined plans to list on UPCoM this year.

They include the Tan Binh Real Estate Joint Stock Company, PetroVietnam Building and Commercial Joint Stock Company, Thang Loi International Garment Joint Stock Company, and Tra Noc-O Mon Water Supply Joint Stock Company.

Experts said the number of companies with large market capitalisation, many in fact of giant size, and good results registering to list on UPCoM is increasing.

This is helping improve the quality, liquidity and size of the market, they said.

As of last year, a total of 804 companies were trading on UPCoM with nearly 32 billion free float shares and a combined market cap of VND319 trillion ($13.87 billion), exceeding the combined number on the Ho Chi Minh and Ha Noi stock exchanges.

The figure includes 137 newly incorporated companies with more than 31 billion shares.

Several large companies, including State-owned enterprises that have already partly or wholly completed their equitisation process, have also listed on UPCoM to make their shares liquid, thus benefiting shareholders.

They include the Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Joint Stock Company with assets of VND59.7 trillion and charter capital of over VND31 trillion, the Viet Nam Rubber Group Limited with legal capital of VND40 trillion and PetroVietnam Power Corporation with charter capital of VND23.42 trillion.

With more large-cap firms trading on UPCoM, the unlisted market has been developing at the same pace as the country’s two main stock exchange indices.

Though companies that have registered to list on UPCoM this year may not be quite so large as those, they are still expected to attract investors thanks to their good performance, experts said.

The PetroVietnam Building and Commercial Joint Stock Company is a subsidiary of the Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Joint Stock Company, which owns an 83.26 per cent stake. Binh Son is among the largest companies traded on UPCoM.

PetroVietnam Building is the sole supplier of three-surface PE bags for packing products to the Dung Quat refinery, the first refinery in the country.

With a charter capital of VND80.6 billion, Tan Binh Real Estate Joint Stock Company (TBR) listed 8.06 million shares for trading on UPCoM this year.

Its modest size and asset value notwithstanding, TBR’s performance last year was pretty good, with after-tax profit in the first nine months of last year reaching VND12.6 billion, up VND7.1 billion from the same period in 2017.

Thang Loi International Garment Joint Stock Company has registered to list three million shares this year. In the first nine months of last year, it reported a profit of VND3.4 billion on sales of VND93.3 billion. 

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