From September 20, foreign securities issuers that wish to go public in Vietnam will be required to have investment projects in the country licensed by competent authorities and come up with sound plans on issuance and use of money raised through public offering of their securities.
These provisions are among six conditions which foreign companies that plan to offer their securities to the public in Vietnam must satisfy under Government Decree No. 84/2010/ND-CP of August 2, revising a number of articles of Decree No. 14/2007/ ND-CP of January 19, 2007, detailing a number of articles of the Law on Securities.
These companies will also have to obtain commitments of foreign organizations which are carrying out projects in Vietnam; pledge not to transfer raised capital abroad and withdraw reciprocal (domestic) capital within the implementation duration of licensed projects and to fulfill all obligations of issuers specified by Vietnamese laws; have their issued securities underwritten by at least one Vietnam-based security company and observe the law on foreign exchange management.
Under the new regulation, domestic organizations and individuals may not offer their securities to the public in case their businesses are ineligible under Article 12 of the Law on Securities or for the purpose of setting up new busi-nesses except for those intended to operate in infrastructure and hi-tech sectors.
A public company (excluding companies which have offered securities to the public or have been listed on the Stock Exchange) will have to carry out procedures for suspending its public status within 30 days after it no longer has at least 100 investors holding its stocks.
Joint-stock credit institutions are allowed to list their stocks if approved by the State Bank.
For all types of fund management companies, the minimum charter capital is now set at VND 25 billion.-