The local UPCoM has 268 companies trading with nearly 5.9 billion shares at a market value of VNĐ75 trillion on HNX. — Photo Cafef.vn

HÀ NỘI (Biz Hub) — After sluggish development, Việt Nam's unlisted public company market (UPCoM) doubled last year, and regulations taking effect in 2016 should bolster growth even more.

Nguyễn Vũ Quang Trung, vice director of the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX), said that the UPCoM, which is said to be a buffer for public companies before their official listing in the two local bourses, currently holds less than 30 per cent of the total 1,071 unlisted public companies.

According to local media, non-Upcom shares have no trading value, or trade in the black market. Compared with the current black market, the unlisted market of UPCoM will better supervise the companies and better protect the rights of the shareholders.

Since 2015, 72 more firms joined the UPCoM, which trades stocks, convertible bonds of unlisted public companies and stocks of companies delisted from listed markets. UPCoM aims to have 300 more companies join by the end of the year.

The vice director said decision No 51/2015/QĐ-TTg and decree No 60/2015/NĐ-CP made the recent growth possible. They forced all public companies to list their stocks in the UPCoM before listing in local bourses.

Under securities law, public companies are defined as those with IPOs; those with shares listed in the two bourses; those whose stakes are owned by more than 100 investors and have charter capital of VNĐ10 billion (US$447,000) or more; and State-owned enterprises (SOEs) that were turned into joint stock companies.

Thus, the State's plan to divest VNĐ40 trillion in a series of SOEs this year under lot auctions will bring many more stocks to the unlisted market.

Furthermore, as the equitisation of State-owned companies continues, more and more of them will be added to the market. Current laws state that SOEs that shift to public companies must register in the UPCoM within 90 days.

Under the Government's plan, 470 SOEs will equitise between 2016 and 2017, including 130 that started the process last year. As a result, there should be about 150 new companies listed in UPCoM within the year. This includes big names such as MobiFone, Satra, Benthanh Group, Viet Nam Tea.

The decree will also bring public companies completing their IPOs such as Seaprodex, Vinatex, Hà Nội Construction Corporation, Sabeco, Habeco, Cholimex Food and a series of banks to the UPCoM.

Trung said starting in 2017, HNX will rate the transparency of the companies in the market and put good stocks in a basket to make investors' work easier. HNX is also building a pre-UPCoM transaction that helps investors buy stock rights before the companies finished their IPOs instead of waiting for them to be listed in the UPCoM market.

As of yesterday, UPCoM has 268 companies trading with nearly 5.9 billion shares at a market value of VNĐ75 trillion. — VNS