Vietnam’s top five IPOs in 2017

The five enterprises having the most substantial contribution to augmenting the size of the Vietnamese stock market in 2017 are Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Petrolimex, VPBank, and Vincom Retail.

On January 3, Vietnam Airlines, Vietnam’s leading aviation line, started trading 1.22 billion shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) at a starting price of VND28,000 ($1.24) per share.

As of December 29, the HVN ticker was reported to reach VND43,000 ($1.9) per share, up 53 per cent against the starting price. The ticker earned an average trading volume of over one million shares per session, with a few exceptions of over two million shares traded.

Additionally, the carrier expected to raise its charter capital by offering 15.57 per cent to existing shareholders as well as launching its initial public offering (IPO) on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HSX) or the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) in 2018.

Vietnam Airlines has only been listed on the UPCoM, expecting to debut on the public stock exchange in 2018

Vietjet, another Vietnam-based aviation service provider, also held a notable IPO on HSX with 300 million shares offered at the starting price of VND90,000 ($3.9) per share. On December 29, Vietjet’s VJC ticker closed at VND146,800 ($6.4), 63 per cent up against the starting price.

In early August, the low-cost airline was given “The IPO Deal of the Year 2017” award by Vietnam M&A Forum 2017.

Vietjet was nominated as the country’s second low-cost airline

In late April, gasoline retailer Petrolimex (HSX: PLX) listed over 1.29 billion shares on HSX at the reference price of VND43,200 ($1.9).

As of December 29, the PLX ticker stood at VND75,000 ($3.3) after seven months of listing on HSX, a 73 per cent rise in comparison to the initial offering price. In addition, the petroleum provider saw an average trading volume of nearly one million shares per session, with a few exceptions of over 4.8 million shares per session.

Vietnam National Petroleum Group was among the ten largest enterprises with the highest market capitalisation

Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank) was one of the most noteworthy IPOs in the finance-banking sector. On August 17, VPBank listed over 1.33 million shares on HSX at the starting price of VND39,000 ($1.7) per share. During the first session, the commercial bank recorded an overwhelming trading volume of around VND1.8 trillion via order matching at the ATO (at-the-open) session.

On December 29, the VPB ticker was at VND41,000 ($1.8), 5 per cent up against the starting price in August.

VPBank was voted as one of the country’s leading commercial banks in terms of the credit growth despite its modest scale of assets

However, the most notable IPO of 2017 must go to Vincom Retail’s November 6 transaction.

Vincom Retail broke records in market capitalisation on the stock exchange

Regarded as the largest share transaction in the IPO history of Vietnam, Vincom Retail broke the records both in trading value and volume on the first day of offering.

As the first shopping centre conglomerate to be listed on a stock exchange, the IPO of the year drew in top investment firms, such as HSBC Asset Management, Dragon Capital, and GIC Pte.

Notably, approximately VND16 trillion ($702.8 million) was spent by the end of November 7 to seize a total 415 million shares in Vincom Retail at the starting rate of VND40,600 ($1.78), constituting around 22 per cent of the retailer unicorn’s offered volume.