Financial Services

With economic growth, solid corporate earnings and a rising need for financing among domestic companies boosting stock markets and stimulating private equity activity, Vietnam’s capital markets have grown steadily in recent years. A wave of equitisation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is boosting the sector further, while a growing range of...

In order to maintain the exceptionally good growth rate of around 6.5% in 2017-20 and successfully restructure the economy, Vietnam needs $250bn of investment, equivalent to approximately 25% of GDP, in the period. Foreign direct investment (FDI) and the public sector have historically accounted for 25% and 35%, respectively, of total...

Strong economic growth and demographic change are catalysing the rapid expansion of the Vietnam’s insurance sector, with premiums growing at double-digit rates and likely to do so for some years to come. Thanks to successive liberalising reforms since the 1990s, a range of foreign insurers and investors are benefitting from this growth, and...

The Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) is effectively a mezzanine exchange, set up to encourage unlisted firms to participate in the securities market, with a view that those on UPCoM may later transfer onto the main market. UPCoM brings a number of benefits to investors. Transactions, clearance and...

Vietnam has an exceptionally high GDP growth rate, but the prosperity has not spread across the country. GDP per capita in the two biggest cities, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, reached $2000 in 2007 and 2010, respectively, in each case marking the first boom in real estate. Since then, GDP per capita has increased by 13% per year in both cities...