Investors have recently paid more attention to IPO of SOE. — Photo Economictimes.Indiantimes.com

HA NOI (Biz Hub)  — Recent initial public offerings (IPOs) of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have attracted more attention from investors than previously.

The latest IPO was from seafood processor Seaprodex, which sold over 45 million shares with an average price of VND10,100 (US$0.47) yesterday. This volume accounted for 75 per cent of the total offering, which was purchased by 55 investors.

The State now holds 63 per cent after the IPO.

On Thursday, Ca Mau Fertiliser had a successful initial offering, selling all of its shares to nearly 1,200 investors and earning VND1.58 trillion ($74.2 million).

A day earlier, Union of Survey Companies Ltd also sold 100 per cent of its IPO to 24 individual investors.

Other recently concluded IPOs included Ben Thanh Tourist and Sai Gon Ground Services.

However, the buyers of the IPOs were mainly domestic investors.

Nguyen Tuan Hai, CEO of private equity firm Alphanam, told Dau tu chung khoan (Securities Investment) that the asset portfolios of these SOEs made them appealing to investors, especially since they possess land use licences in major cities.

In particular, Ben Thanh Tourist owns two major hotels in the busy and crowded HCM City.

Can Gio Tourist, with 11.5 million shares sold by Saigontourist on Wednesday, has one of Viet Nam's largest polder projects – the Sai Gon Sunbay beach tourism complex.

Meanwhile, there have been a few companies operating in the ground service sector. Therefore, investing in businesses such as Sai Gon Ground Services will generate both short – and long-term profits.

In the first six months of this year, the company's revenue and profit reached VND237 billion ($11.12 million) and VND43 billion ($2 million), respectively.

Nearly 400 more SOEs are scheduled to be equitised by the end of next year, which is expected to create many more investment opportunities. — VNS