Taiwan's Taya Electric Wire and Cable Co (大亞電線電纜) will become the first foreign firm to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in Vietnam on May 27, a month after a first failed attempt to raise funds, company officials said yesterday.
The IPO will be worth about US$2.3 million, a company official said.
"We cannot say why we had to delay our auction, which had been scheduled for April," the official said, refusing to be named.
"We will be the first foreign company to list shares on Vietnam's securities market," the official added.
On May 27, the company will begin offering shares equal to 20 percent of its registered capital, or some 36 billion dong (US$2.3 million).
First foreign firm
Pham Hong Son, deputy administrative chief of the State Securities Commission in Hanoi, confirmed Taya would be the first foreign firm to list.
"The listing of foreign-invested companies on our securities market will help promote foreign investment in the country," Son said.
Five other firms have received government approval to do so.
The Taya official would not say exactly when the shares will actually list, noting it would depend on administrative procedures.
"We expect that it will be in late August," he said.
Taya (Vietnam) was launched in 1995 as part of the then Taiwanese government's "go south" policy of encouraging firms to invest in countries other than China.
The English-language weekly Vietnam Investment Review yesterday said the first Taya factory in the southern province of Dong Nai employs more than 400 people.
A second factory has begun operating in the northern province of Hai Duong, it said, without giving details.
The company's shares will be listed in the country's two stock exchanges in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
second exchange
Vietnam's second stock exchange opened in Hanoi on March 8, offering shares in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as well as bonds and other financial instruments.
The Ho Chi Minh City market has operated since July 2000, but has failed to take off in any significant way. According to official figures, Vietnam now has more than 2,400 SOEs, but only 29 of them are listed on Ho Chi Minh City's exchange.
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