High capital threshold mulled for foreign fund managers

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Foreign fund managers wanting to set up a branch in Viet Nam must have total capital of its funds of at least US$500 million, says the Ministry of Finance's draft statute on foreign investors' operations in Viet Nam just submitted to the prime minister.
A foreign fund manager wanting to build a branch in Viet Nam must also have at least three-years of experiences in fund management, and the securities watchdog of the country where that foreign fund manager is based or registered must have a cooperation deal with Viet Nam's State Securities Commission.
To set up a foreign-owned fund management company in Viet Nam, the applying foreign institution must have an operating license on assets management in its resident country and must manage at least US$300 million in market -value assets in the fiscal year when it applies to set up a firm in Viet Nam.
However, this regulation does not apply to foreign fund managers having maintained representative offices in Viet Nam for over three-years and managing funds investing in Viet Nam.
Prior to Viet Nam's opening of the securities market under its WTO commitments, foreign fund manager's branch or foreign-owned company can provide only asset management services for foreign investors, comprising investors' portfolio management and offshore fund management in Viet Nam.
Foreign fund management company can sell stakes to other foreign fund managers who meet all conditions above. After three-years of operation, a foreign fund management company can sell stakes to Vietnamese partners or mobilise funds from Vietnamese investors to reduce foreign stake to under 49%, all of which must be approved by the State Securities Commission (SSC).
Foreign fund managers and branches of foreign fund managers must have monthly, quarterly, and yearly reports as per the commission's regulation.
Operation time of a foreign fund manager's branch in Viet Nam is not longer than 50 years and of foreign-owned fund company not over 99 years. (Sai Gon Times)

Maritime Bank issues C/Ds in US dollar and euro

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Maritime Bank issues C/Ds in US dollar and euro
Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank recently announced that from now to May 30, it would issue certificate of deposits (C/Ds) in both US dollar and euro with a total value of US$30 million and five million euro.
These C/Ds have terms of 3, 6, 9 and 11 months with attractive interest rates. With C/Ds in US dollar, individual customers will get the yearly interest rate of from 6.2% to 6.5% and corporate customers from 5.9% to 6.1%. As for C/Ds in euro, the interest rate will be from 3% to 3.5% per annum.

Sacombank Group to debut

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Under the plan passed by the Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank)'s shareholders' meeting recently, Sacombank Group would make its debut in next month in HCM City with member companies including securities company, real estate arm, financial leasing firm and card joint venture company.
Sacombank Insurance Co will be established by next year.
Up to March 31, Sacombank reached 75.2 trillion dong in total asset, 65.348 trillion dong in total deposits, 41.666 trillion dong in outstanding loans and its ownership capital was 6.314 trillion dong.

Eden Joint Stock Co to pay dividend in cash

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Eden Joint Stock Co recently passed the plan to pay a 2007 dividend of 25% in cash to the shareholders after reporting gaining about 16.5 billion dong in after-tax profit on the chartered capital of 52 billion dong.
In 2008, the company targets to earn 27 billion dong in pre-tax profit and 80 billion dong in chartered capital.
Also within this year, Eden will continue carrying out some real estate projects namely Eden Resort Phu Quoc with a total cost of 80 billion dong, Eden Lagi Resort in Binh Thuan, Eden Seaspimex trade centre and entertainment complex in Hoa Binh Road, HCM City's Tan Phu Dist.
Especially, the company will build a 2,000 hotel room system from the north to the south in next five years and set up a new investment fund worth US$100 million to carry out the project.

Song Da 6.04 to increase chartered capital to 45b dong

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Song Da 6.04 Joint Stock Co (coded S64)'s shareholders' meeting recently passed the plan to increase its chartered capital from 20 billion to 45 billion dong through issuing 2.5 million shares.
Of which, 2.4 million shares will be offered to the existing shareholders at the ratio of 1:1.2 (every 120 new shares for 100 shares held) at the price of 20,000 dong per share and the remaining 100,000 shares will be allocated to the company's employees at the same price.
This year, the company targets to bring 81.8 billion dong in revenue, 6.5 billion dong in profit and pay dividend of 15%.

Vinaconex 6 to scale up chartered capital

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Construction Joint Stock Co No 6 (Vinaconex 6-VC6)'s annual shareholders' meeting recently passed the plan to offer one million more shares to hike the chartered capital to 50 billion dong from the current of 40 billion dong.
Under it, VC6 will offer shares to the existing shareholders at the ratio of one new share for four shares held with the expected price accounting for 80% of the average price of five latest consecutive sessions on the Hanoi Securities Transaction Centre (HaSTC).
According to VC6, with the holding 51% of chartered capital, Vinconex Joint Stock Corp will have right to buy 510,000 shares and the remaining 490,000 shares will be sold to other shareholders.
The capital being mobilised from the share issue will be invested in the complex project of high-rise building in Hanoi, Vinaconex 6-Dai Lai villas area in the northern province of Vinh Phuc and invested in equipments and machines.
Last year, VC6 made a revenue of 229.529 billion dong, 8.008 billion dong from pre tax profit and 5.892 billion dong from after tax profit.
This year, the company target to earn 275.1 billion dong in revenue and 12.2 billion dong from pre tax profit. (DTCK)

Who pays interest rate on stock investors' account balance?

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Under the Decision No 27/2007/QD-BTC dated April 4, 2007, from March 1 this year stock brokerages will have to transfer deposits of securities transaction of stock players to an assigned commercial bank instead of direct receive like previous.
But on April 14, the State Securities Commission released the Official Letter No 611/UBCK-QLPH extending the deadline of March 1 to before October 1, 2008 because factually, to date only nine companies have completed the assignment.
However, investors now wonder whether they con continue receiving interests from balance of their securities accounts any more and who pays, stock broker or bank?
In line with the appendix of Decision No 27, stock brokerages will negotiate about interest rate based on securities accounts that investors opened at those brokers. Therefore, there has not been any official regulation yet so brokers will not have to pay interest rate for balance of stock investors' accounts. Secondly, interest rate negotiations between investors and securities companies are allowed so if without negotiation or negotiated interest rate of 0%, no law can be enforced in those cases. Thirdly, there is no regulation forcing securities companies to pay interest rate for balance of stock investors' accounts under the current Law on Securities and there is not any punishment.
Another point of view is that the interest rate payment responsibility is absolute.
It is seemed that the first opinion is more logical so the payment of interest rate to stock investors depends on securities companies.
Although not allowed to directly receive deposits of securities transaction from investors, Decision 27 still stipulates that stock brokers' monitoring on deposits must be separated from their own money. This means that brokers are allowed to continue managing customers' money. Therefore, investors have to open bank accounts that must be linked with securities accounts. As investors offer investment orders, securities companies will blockade directly balance of investors' securities accounts to carry out orders. In this case, banks will have to pay interest rate for investors' account balance because investors' money is kept at banks. In fact, fewer stockbrokers and banks can do this due to technological disadvantages.
On the other hand, stockbrokers only need to transfer the sending and withdrawal of investors' money to banks. In this case, securities companies still manage investors' money so they have responsibility to pay interest rate for account balance to investors. This solution was selected by most brokers.
So the question whether will stock players receive interest rate for their account balance or not will base on contracts. Investors should focus on interest rates on account balance carefully and cautiously before signing to open accounts at banks and securities companies. (DTCK)

DaiA Bank to double chartered capital

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Great Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (DaiA Bank)'s shareholders' meeting held on April 19 passed the plan to double its chartered capital from the current of 500 billion dong to one trillion dong via offering 50 million shares.
Of which, 18.4 million shares worth 184 billion dong on par sourced from the capital surplus will be offered to the existing shareholders and out of the remaining 31.6 million shares, 30 million shares will be issued to the existing shareholders at the ratio of six new shares for 10 shares held and 1.6 million shares to the bank's employees.
The bank also plans to pay a dividend of 12% this year.
Out of 500 billion dong of additional chartered capital, DaiAbank will invest 300 billion dong to modernise the bank and develop its network, and remaining 200 billion dong will be invested in business activities.
Last year, DaiAbank controlled the overdue debt rate on total outstanding debt at 0.06% and its capital for securities investment reached 18.468 trillion dong, accounting for 1.09% on total outstanding debt.
Up to December 31, DaiAbank's total asset gained over two trillion dong, up 43% on 2007, 1.1 trillion dong in total deposits, rising nearly 77% against the same period of 2007, nearly 1.7 trillion dong in total outstanding loans, over 100 billion dong from pre tax profit, return on equity (ROE) of 20% and return on asset (ROA) of 5.82%.

The bank is now the strategic shareholder of Dai Viet Securities Joint Stock Co with a holding of 7.2% stake.

Cavico Corp. Received Approval for Laos’ Nam Kong Two Hydropower Plant

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Cavico Corp. (Cavico) (OTCBB: CVIC - News) today announced that it has received approval from the Vietnam Government and the Ministry of Energy and Mines of the Laos People’s Democratic Republic to invest in the Nam Kong Two hydropower plant in the amount of $120 million. Cavico will construct the 80 megawatt plant, located in Attapeu province, south of Laos and 30 miles from Vietnam’s border. Cavico expects to perform all the construction work and complete the $120 million plant by 2012.
Cavico will have a 70% ownership interest in the plant and Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) will hold the remaining 30%. EVN will purchase the total electricity production from this plant to be resold within Vietnam. EVN is a Vietnamese state-owned entity which supplies and governs electricity in Vietnam. EVN currently produces 70 billion KW hours annually representing 82% of Vietnam’s electricity supply.
Hai Thanh Tran, vice president of Cavico Corp., commented, “Our reputation as Vietnam’s premier private hydropower plant construction and engineering firm has enabled us to solidify our relationships with strategic partners. Our expansion of our hydropower construction expertise to other countries in the Southeast Asia region is a logical progression for us. We intend to continue studying and pursuing other construction projects internationally. Vietnam’s rapidly expanding economy has increased in electricity demand by 17% annually which has left a deficit of 1 billion KW hours per year. EVN has historically purchased purchase electricity from China to meet this shortage. Once the Nam Kong Two hydropower plant is operational, we expect to supply about 400 million KW hours per year to ease this shortage.”
About Cavico Corp. (OTCBB:CVIC)
Cavico is focused on large infrastructure projects which include the construction of hydropower facilities, dams, bridges, tunnels, roads, mines and urban buildings. Cavico is also making investments in hydropower facilities, cement production plants and urban developments in Vietnam. Headquartered in Hanoi, with 3000 employees at projects worldwide, the company has offices throughout Vietnam and a satellite office in Australia.
Founded in 2000, Cavico is a major infrastructure construction, infrastructure investment and natural resources conglomerate headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam. Cavico is highly respected for its core competency in the construction of mission-critical infrastructure including hydroelectric plants, highways, bridges, tunnels, ports and urban community developments. One of the company’s primary competitive advantages is its ability to nurture a project “from concept through completion” with a vertical portfolio of interrelated investment, permitting, design, construction management and facility maintenance services. Cavico’s project partners include top multi-national corporations and government organizations. The company employs more than 3,000 people. For more information, visit http://www.cavicocorp.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
The statements contained in this Release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including without limitation, statements regarding the Company’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on the Company. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting the Company will be those anticipated by the Company. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond the control of the Company) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to successfully and timely complete construction projects; the Company’s ability to convert backlog into revenue; the potential delay, suspension, termination, or reduction in scope of a construction project; the continuing validity of the underlying assumptions and estimates of total forecasted project revenues, costs and profits and project schedules; the outcomes of pending or future litigation, arbitration or other dispute resolution proceedings; the availability of borrowed funds on terms acceptable to the Company; the ability to retain certain members of management; the ability to obtain surety bonds to secure its performance under certain construction contracts; possible labor disputes or work stoppages within the construction industry; changes in governmental appropriations for infrastructure projects; possible changes or developments in worldwide or domestic political, social, economic, business, industry, market and regulatory conditions or circumstances; and actions taken or not taken by third parties, including the Company’s customers, suppliers, business partners, and competitors and legislative, regulatory, judicial and other governmental authorities and officials. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. (BUSINESS WIRE)

Large securities company debuts in Hanoi

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Wall Street Securities Company (WSS) officially opened its doors in Hanoi on April 22.
The company, which has so far lured nearly 3,000 accounts, is expected to increase its capital to 1.84 trillion VND, becoming the country’s biggest securities company in charter capital.
WSS also plans to open branches and agencies in all major cities and provinces this year.

Eight circumstances keeping cash away from banks

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Since mid February, mobilised capital growth has been slowing down though commercial banks have offered high interest rates and launched big promotion programmes. Why?
Statistics show that by the end of the first quarter of 2008, the total mobilised capital of the whole banking system had increased by 5.48%, and total outstanding loans had increased by 10.8% over the end of 2007. The figures were 11.76% and 6.4% at the same period of last year.
At the Saigon Joint Stock Bank (SCB), the total mobilised capital saw a decrease of VND300bil in the last two weeks of March, and a further decrease of VND450bil in the first two weeks of April.
State owned banks, which have the biggest advantages in capital mobilisation thanks to their wide operation networks, prestige, are also facing the same situation.
In Hanoi, the total capital mobilised by state owned banks by early April had decreased by nearly 4% compared to December 31, 2007.
The Viet Nam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) and Vietnam Bank for Foreign Trade (Vietcombank), which always lead in capital mobilisation, have reported the decreases of 13% and 6%, respectively, in mobilised capital.
State owned banks, which were once the biggest lenders on the interbank market, now have become borrowers. By the end of March 2008, state owned banks in Hanoi had borrowed 55% more money through the interbank market over the end of February.
In HCM City, by April 16, 2008, the banks’ mobilised capital had dropped by VND9,225bil over the end of March, of which the deposits of state owned banks had decreased by 1.74%, and of joint stock banks, by 0.28%.
Eight reasons have been cited to explain the problems.
First, the tightened monetary policies have been making it difficult for businesses to access bank loans. As a result, many businesses which have deposits at banks have drawn money out to lend to other businesses to get higher interest rates. People who have idle capital are not making deposits at banks anymore, but lending to their relatives and friends to serve those people’s investment projects.
Second, banks may face a capital shortage as the State Treasury is planning to withdraw VND52,000bil worth of government money from state owned banks.
Third, many institutions that are founding shareholders of other institutions to be organised have drawn money from banks to transfer to accounts to prove their financial capability.
Fourth, as the stock market keeps falling, OTC share prices are descending, which has made a lot of investors incur losses. Therefore, they have no money left to deposit at banks. Moreover, the deposits of securities companies at banks have been decreasing due to 1/ the losses incurred by the companies and 2/ lower balances in investors’ accounts at securities companies.
Fifth, as the gold price keeps increasing and the CPI remains high, people tend to inject money in gold instead of bank deposits. It is estimated that some 40 tonnes of gold have been imported to Viet Nam so far this year, worth $1.2bil. 60% has been sold on the market.
Sixth, as the real estate market has cooled down, investors cannot sell properties to take back capital; therefore, they do not have money to make bank deposits.
Seventh, people, hearing about the car import tax increase, have drawn money from banks to buy cars before the tax increase decisions become effective.
Eighth, the idle money among the public is nearly exhausted. People deposited at banks when the interest rates were high, at 13% per annum, and now they do not have more money to deposit. (TBKTVN)

Saigon Securities sets lower targets for 2008

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Shareholders of the Saigon Securities Incorporate (SSI) set last Sunday this year’s goal of 550 billion VND (34 million USD) in gross profit from a turnover of 950 billion VND.
The figure is lower than what it achieved last year, with 961 billion VND in pre-tax profits and 1.244 trillion VND in total turnover.
This year’s first quarter SSI gained a 365 billion VND turnover that yielded a 308 billion VND profit, but it allocated 180 billion VND to its risk fund, reducing the profit to 128 billion VND. The poor performance was attributed to the downtrend of the market and fiercer competition.

Habeco to sell Carlsberg left-over shares

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
The Hanoi Beer Alcohol and Beverage Co (Habeco) will sell a portion of the shares left over from its undersubscribed initial public offering (IPO) to its foreign strategic partner, Denmark-based brewer Carlberg.
Habeco is working on a detailed plan for the sale of shares, according to a representative of the company’s accounting department.

”The price will be consistent with IPO price of 50,000 VND per share,” he said, noting, however, that the actual price to be paid by Carlsberg could not be disclosed.

Requesting anonymity, the representative added, “Carlsberg has expressed its desire to buy more shares. We chose to accept this offer in order to preserve our shares’ liquidity and develop our future cooperation.”

In late March, Habeco sold only 4.3 million out of the 34.7 million shares offered in its IPO. The average price was 50,015 VND per share.

Nguyen Tien Dung, an independent analyst, said that Habeco shares were a worthwhile investment because it was a giant, formerly State-owned enterprise working in beer and beverages, a high potential sector.

”Due to gloomy times on the stock market, investors didn’t realise this potential during the IPO. The auction was unsuccessful even though the offer price and volume seemed quite consistent with the state of the market.”

He also noted that the Government’s approval for the sale of additional shares to Carlberg could make investors regret turning up their noses at the IPO, as the shares are likely to strengthen due to Carlsberg’s interest.

According to a Habeco official, Habeco shares will be listed on the stock market later this year. (VNA)

Auditing firms merging to become stronger

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
To date, at least eight auditing firms have merged into each other to form four bigger firms, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Bui Van Mai, Director of the Auditing and Accounting Policy Department under the Ministry of Finance, said that there is a growing tendency of small auditing firms to merge in order to become stronger.

Mai said that under the newly promulgated Decision No 89, auditing firms must have at least seven practicing auditors, who have at least two years of experience, to be eligible to provide auditing services on the stock market. The firms must have the chartered capital or stockholder equity of VND2bil at least for domesticly owned firms, and $300,000 at least for foreign invested firms. Besides, the firms must have the annual minimum number of clients of 30 in the last two years.

To date, 141 auditing companies have been licensed, of which only 26 companies have been accepted to provide auditing services on the stock market (auditing public companies, securities companies and investment fund management companies).

More and more auditing firms have been established recently, but only few staff members have been recognized as certified auditors.

In 2005, only 200 auditors were certified, while the figure was 250 in 2006, and dropped to 30 in 2007.

Mai said that auditing firms are seriously lacking qualified staffs due to the tardiness in granting certificates to auditors. Besides, a lot of auditors have shifted to work for banks and securities companies, which has also worsened the situation.

Mai said that auditing firms have no other choice than merging into each other to become bigger which allows them to meet the newly promulgated regulations. He added that more and more merger cases will be seen in the time to come. (DTCK)

OTC market warming up

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
OTC shares of real estate firms with high liquidity are being hunted by many investors, who are tired of the transactions on the official markets.

Over the last month, when the daily trading bands were set at 1% on the HCM City Stock Exchange and 2% at the Hanoi Securities Trading Centre, many investors ‘had no wave to surf’, which made them tired of making transactions on the official markets. As the daily trading bands were narrowed, the maximum profit the investors could get also decreased, which did not satisfy them.

A lot of the investors have turned to trading OTC shares, which do not require many procedures for transactions, while the share prices can go up or down many times within a day.

Some experts believe that it is the time to trade unlisted shares at this moment, which can bring high profit in the short term. Besides, as the prices of many share items have returned to the starting points, investors may feel safe to make long term investments.

N.T. Lam, an investor on Rong Viet Securities trading floor, said that the liquidity of real estate firms’ shares proves to be relatively high, therefore, they are being hunted by many investors.

Though the real estate market is now cooling down, the market, in the long term, keeps potential in long term, as the short supply will still exist, until 2010 at least, which also means that real estate firms will still flourish.

“I have purchased 20,000 HAGL at VND185,000/share,” Lam said. Meanwhile, an OTC broker also said that he received nearly 10 calls ordering the purchase of Vinaconex, HAGL at high prices.

Bank shares, which once nearly disappeared from the market for a period, have now returned. The bank share items which investors are most hunting now are Eximbank’s and Military Bank’s. An Binh Bank’s shares are offering at vND15,500/share, while Dai A at VND19,000/share.

N. V Quang, an investor on Rong Viet Securities trading floor, said that though banks are facing a difficult year this year, but they have great potentials to develop in long term. Therefore, many investors decide to buy bank shares, considering shares as the asset to save for one or two years.

Experts said that the OTC market’s ups and downs depend on the performance of the official markets. Besides, another reason behind the recently frozen OTC market was that investors felt risky with transactions, as laws do not protect investors in case of disputes.

However, the OTC market will be put under control of the Hanoi Securities Trading Centre soon, slated for the second quarter of the year. The Ministry of Finance is planning to set the daily trading band of +/- 20% for the market. Meanwhile, investors will not be allowed to purchase and sell the same items of shares within one day, in order to prevent investors from colluding with each other to control prices on the market.

Regarding the regulations on the OTC market management, some securities companies think that the State Securities Commission should not set up too strict regulations by prohibiting investors to purchase and sell the same share items within one day, since this will badly affect the liquidity. Instead of the strict regulation, the watchdog agency should push up the supervision over the market. (DTCK)

ACB may sell first overseas bonds

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Bank to dip toe into international debt market, maybe becoming the first Vietnamese firm to sell bonds abroad.
Asia Commercial Bank, the sole listed bank on the Hanoi market, plans to sell as much as VND3 trillion (US$186 million) of dollar-denominated bonds this year in its first overseas debt sale, said Chief Executive Officer Ly Xuan Hai.
“We want to start setting foot in the international markets,’’ Hai said in an interview from Ho Chi Minh City.

“The foreign currency-denominated bond sale needs to have Ministry of Finance approval but we want to do it as soon as possible.’’

He declined to give further details about the sale.

ACB, as the bank is known, is vying with Viet Nam National Textile and Garment Group and Electricity of Viet Nam to become the Southeast Asian nation’s first company to issue bonds abroad.

The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) has authorized ACB to sell VND6.5 trillion ($400 million) of bonds in total this year, the same as 2007, according to a statement dated last week posted on the central bank’s website.

Ho Chi Minh City-based ACB sold about VND4.5 trillion ($277.5 million) of local-currency bonds last year.

The lender was also authorized by the central bank to sell another VND2 trillion ($123.3 million) of securities, but didn’t because the permit expired, Hai said.

Slow lending

The central bank has told ACB to slow its lending after imposing a 30% cap on credit growth for the sector this year in an effort to control inflation, which is at a 12 year high.

The country’s fifth-largest lender by assets, should adjust its business plan along government’s instructions on measures to control inflation, the SBV said in a statement posted on its website.

ACB had forecast loans to grow 85% this year to VND59 trillion ($3.63 billion).

The statement gave no timeframe or any specific lending growth rate for ACB.

Last year Viet Nam’s credit growth was 54%, prompting the central bank to tighten money supply in the first quarter of 2008 as annual inflation hit 19.3% in March, the highest in more than 12 years.

ACB did not immediately comment last Friday but executives from the bank and several other Ho Chi Minh City-based banks have said the central bank should issue specific targets for individual banks because of their different financial strengths.

ACB said its asset growth was up in the first quarter, rising 17% from end of 2007 to VND100 trillion ($6.3 billion).

The lender nearly doubled its assets from a year ago to VND50.33 trillion ($3.1 billion).

It reported unaudited gross profit of VND501 billion ($31 million) in the first three months of this year, or 20% of its earnings forecast for the whole of 2008, it said in a statement on its website.

ACB gave no annual percentage change for first quarter profit but last year the lender reported pretax profit of VND413 billion ($25.8 million) for the first quarter of 2007.

The bank has projected its total assets will increase 69.8% to VND145 trillion ($8.99 billion) and loans will grow 85% to VND59 trillion ($3.66 billion) this year.

Standard Chartered owns 8.56% of ACB, the largest stake of four foreign shareholders which together hold a combined 30%. (Bloomberg)

Sacombank to start $19 mln gold company in July

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint- Stock Bank, Viet Nam’s second-biggest publicly traded bank, plans to start operating a VND300 billion (US$19 million) gold and gem company in July.
The Ho Chi Minh City-based company will trade in gold, according to a release Monday on the bank’s website.
Sacombank is also involved in setting up a gold exchange in Ho Chi Minh City, Chairman Dang Van Thanh said in the statement.
Gold exchanges have already been established in Hanoi and in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam’s financial hub.
Sacombank reported first-quarter pretax profit of VND435 billion ($27 million), a year-on-year increase of 44%. (Bloomberg)

Vietnam Resource Investments (Holdings) Limited Acquires Shares of Keeper Resources Inc.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Viet Nam Resource Investments (Holdings) Limited ("VRI") announced that it has today acquired 317,400 common shares of Keeper Resources Inc. (TSXV: KEE) ("Keeper"). On April 4, 2008, Keeper announced that VRI agreed to make an all cash offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Keeper on a fully diluted basis at
a price of $1.50 per share by way of a take-over bid. KR Acquisition Corp. ("KAC"), an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of VRI, mailed the formal documents in connection with the offer to security holders of Keeper on April 16, 2008.
The highest price paid per share purchased today was C$1.48. The average
price paid per share purchased during the course of KAC's acquisition of
Keeper to date is C$1.48.
The aggregate number of Keeper shares purchased by VRI, including
purchases made today, is 317,400. As a result of today's transaction, VRI now
owns a total of 317,400 common shares of Keeper, or 0.98% of the common shares
of Keeper.
VRI is an investment fund managed by Dragon Capital Management Limited
("Dragon Capital"). Funds managed by Dragon Capital currently own 6,077,400
shares of Keeper (including today's purchase by VRI), which represents
approximately 18.8% of Keeper's issued and outstanding common shares. Dragon
Capital is a part of a financial group focused on Vietnam. The Group's
investment management arm is the country's largest dedicated portfolio
investor. The group is known both within Vietnam and international financial
circles as one of the premier Vietnam-focused financial institutions. For
additional information, please visit www.dragoncaptial.com.
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy
or accuracy of this release. (CNW)

April 22, Stock market continues drop

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
The Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) today April 22 continued falling on the stock market when the VN Index slipped another 4.3 points or 0.8% to end at 530.62 pts with the total matching order trade of over four million shares and fund certificates worth over 194 billion dong, decreasing 46.44% in trading volume in comparison with the previous session.
Among 154 shares and fund certificates being listed on the southern bourse, the stock market recorded 37 shares increasing, 12 others remained unchanged and 105 shares decreasing.
VNM reached the ceiling price with 2,000 dong to 128,000 dong per share, PVD up 1,000 dong to 116,000 dong per share.
Meanwhile, DPM lost 500 to 51,500 dong per share, STB slipped 700 to 36,800, PPC down 800 to 39,200 dong, FPT lost 1,500 dong to 88,500 dong, SSI, ITA and HPG dropped 1,000 dong.
The recruit BMI after losing 20% in the previous session today continued losing 700 dong to 37,700 dong per share with 12,810 shares being traded.
There were 26 share codes hitting the ceiling price including VHG, VNM, TRC and FMC.
DPM took the first place in trading volume with 954,070 shares, followed by VHG with 263,360 shares and others with below 200,000 shares like DPR, VSH, STB and PVD.
Foreign investors bought 74 share codes with the total trading volume of nearly 1.3 million shares. Of which, DPM reached the biggest trading volume with 601,700 shares, PVD with 119,280 shares and DPR with 80,200 shares being transferred.
Similarly, the Hanoi Securities Trading Center (HaSTC) today April 22 kept falling on the stock market when the HaSTC Index slipped another 3.07 points or 1.73% to end at 174.26 pts with the total market trade of 2,469,400 shares worth nearly 103 billion dong.
Amongst 134 listed shares on the northern bourse, the stock market saw 21 shares increasing while 100 others decreasing, four shares stood still and nine shares with no trades.
Four shares stood still including KBC, LUT, PVE and SJC.
Nine shares with no trades were C92, CID, DST, HSC, HUT, MCO, NGC, NPS and VBH.
S99 showed the strongest decrease when losing 2,700 dong and followed by ACB and BVS down 2,500 dong and VSP slipped 2,300 dong per share.
MIC performed the biggest increase when adding 2,400 dong and followed by DTC up 1,500 dong and HLY leaped 1,200 dong per share.
ACB reached the biggest trading volume with 286,100 shares, followed by PVS with 230,600 shares, PVI with 189,200, DBC with 185,900, NTP with 133,500 and PAN with 101,600 shares being traded.

Investors opt for gold over stocks

Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Investors are creating a mini-gold rush, perceiving gold as a stronger investment than either stocks or savings at a time when the stock market is stagnant and commercial banks have colluded to place a voluntary cap on deposit interest rates.
Hanoi's Bao Tin Minh Chau Jewellery Co yesterday reported a large volume of buyers, outnumbering sellers by about four-to-one over the past week.
Domestic gold prices yesterday were off from last week's high of VND18.3mil (US$1,143) per tael by about VND250,000, but prices were expected to remain high in the coming weeks as investors pull deposits out of banks and turn to gold.
Sai Gon Jewellery Co yesterday listed buy/sell prices at VND18.05-18.13mil ($1,128-33) per tael (a tael is equivalent to 1.2 ounces) in Hanoi and HCM City, while Hanoi-based Bao Tin Minh Chau listed prices at VND18.05-18.18mil.
The prices represent increases of nearly 36% over the same time last year and of 14% since the beginning of this year.
On global markets, gold prices have gained 31% since the end of 2007. Gold yesterday fell to $923.20 per ounce on NYMEX from a high of $935 per ounce on Friday.
Unlike many western nations which view gold as personal property, Vietnam sees it as a fungible commodity, widely used as a medium of payment for large-purchases such as real estate, and banks here will pay interest on deposits of gold, based on the value of the gold at the time it is withdrawn.
VietA Commercial Joint Stock Bank last week increased interest on gold savings to 4%, for 12 month terms and 4.5% for 18 months.
"That's even better than interest on the US dollar. Dollar interest is 6% per year but the exchange rate isn't increasing like gold prices," commented Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai, a VietA Bank customer.
Last year, when banks only offered 1-2% for gold savings, depositors gained little but the security of letting the bank hold onto their gold, she said. However, with the current interest on gold savings and the long-term uptrend in gold prices, saving gold in banks has become an attractive choice
Investing in gold at this time of high inflation, frozen real estate prices and a sluggish stock market was a wise choice, said Dinh Nho Bang, general secretary of Viet Nam Gold Trading Association
But Huynh Trung Khanh, senior consultant of the International Gold Council, cautioned, "Traders should invest in gold for at least one to three years, minimising the risks of short-term investing or speculating."
Khanh also warned that investors who borrowed from banks to trade in gold should be cautious due to rapid fluctuations in gold prices day-to-day.
Some banks are offering gold futures contracts but the option has not yet proven attractive to many investors. (VNS)