Sterner measures to be imposed on delayed listing

Nam Dinh Textile Garment Corporation has been fined for VND200 million ($8,800) for delaying its listing

At the periodical government press meeting last month, Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai said that the ministry (MoF) has recently made public the list of more than 700 businesses who have been equitised but have not been listed as required.

After MoF’s move, more than half of these firms have completed the necessary listing procedures and gone onto the bourse.

“The remaining businesses are in the legal setup stage to debut on the stock market in the forthcoming time,” Mai said.

Hundreds of equitised businesses delaying listing have not only cause concerns to investors, but also badly affected business transparency.

At a recent meeting of the Steering Committee for Business Renovation and Development, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said that one of the committee’s core tasks this year was to urge ministries, localities, business groups, and corporations to facilitate the listing process of equitised businesses under their management.

Hue also required the imposition of sterner sanctions on disobedient businesses.

In fact, numerous state-owned businesses have been delaying the listing, despite being equitised several years ago, including Vietnam Wool JSC, Cuu Long Construction and Trading House JSC, and Quang Nam Seafood Import Export JSC, to name but a few.

According to Pham Thi Thanh Huong, deputy chief inspector at the State Securities Commission (SSC), in respect to equitised businesses which have satisfied listing requirements but have yet to go on the bourse, besides sending notices to remind them of their [listing] obligations, SSC have been working with them directly on the issue.

In the next step, if firms still delay the listing, SSC will consider imposing sanctions.

Most recently, in light of Decree 145/2016 on measures to deal with administrative violations in securities business, SSC has fined Nam Dinh Textile Garment Corporation for VND200 million ($8,800) for delaying its listing by more than nine months.

Huong said that at this point of time, SSC is reviewing the list of disobedient businesses to consider sanctions. Further punishments will be publicised to facilitate the listing process.