Full Power Joint Stock Co today became the second foreign company to list on Vietnam's stock market, as the six-year-old bourse looks to find additional corporate sources in its bid to expand.
The Taiwanese-owned company's Vietnam unit is divided into landscaping, mechanical and electrical services and construction divisions. Services offered include land development planning, architectural and interior design, and construction and installation of electrical systems.
Full Power joins the Vietnamese unit of Ta Ya Electric Wire & Cable Co (大亞電線電纜), also from Taiwan, as the only foreign-controlled companies listed on the 44-member, US$2.7 billion Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center.
Vietnam has said it wants the stock market to become "an important channel for mobilizing capital," buoying the bourse to encourage foreign firms to list.
"Full Power's listing has proved that the government's policy of allowing foreign companies to join the local stock market is in line with demand," bourse director Tran Dac Sinh said yesterday, in a ceremony at the stock market. "This will help convince other foreign companies to approach the market."
Foreign companies that list in Vietnam generally want their brand names to become better-known in the local market, Sinh said in an interview on Monday at the bourse.
"There will be more and more foreign companies joining the stock market here," he said.
Chang Yih Ceramic Joint-Stock Co, also from Taiwan, plans to become the next one on July 31, according to yesterday's stock market bulletin.
Full Power, which isn't publicly traded in Taiwan, decided to list its Vietnam unit primarily in an attempt to boost its profile, general manager Jessey Torng said in an interview at the bourse yesterday.
The company is targeting construction projects for apartment and office buildings, hotels, and public buildings, Torng said.
"We plan to expand our business," said Chen Li Hsun, president of the company, in a speech yesterday at the bourse, citing plans to invest in property in Vietnam. "We want to try to get the contracts for the Vietnamese government's major construction projects."
The company, whose Vietnamese headquarters are in Binh Duong Province, just outside Ho Chi Minh City, reported sales in Vietnam last year of 362.5 billion dong (US$22.7 million) and net income of 24.6 billion dong, according to its prospectus. Sales this year are forecast to rise to 400 billion dong, while profit is seen rising to 30 billion dong.
Full Power shares closed yesterday at 40,000 dong, up about a fifth from the price at which its stock was changing hands prior to listing, and valuing the 1.91 million shares that the company listed at about US$4.8 million.
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