Hong Kong bourse to welcome first Vietnamese firm next year: report
Hong Kong bourse to welcome first Vietnamese firm next year: report
A firm owning well-known food brands including "Mon Hue," "Com Express" and "Pho Ong Hung" will become the first Vietnamese company to list on a foreign stock exchange, the news website of the government, baochinhphu.vn, reported.
Huy Vietnam Group Limited, which runs a chain of over 85 restaurants serving Vietnamese cuisine across the three brands in the two biggest cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, is expecting to complete its filing for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) later this month.
The IPO is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of next year after Huy Vietnam finished all necessary procedures, according to baochinhphu.vn.
The share offering will be supported by U.S.-based Citic CLSA, and Citic CLSA and CIMB would be the two co-coordinators for it.
According to news website FinanceAsia, Huy Vietnam registered for establishment in the Cayman Islands, a HKEx-certified location.
As Vietnam has yet to be certified by HKEx, some companies registered in the country will have difficulty obtaining permits for listing on the bourse, according to FinanceAsia.
Although many Vietnamese companies have planned to list on foreign exchanges, such as dairy firm Vinamilk’s proposal to list on the Singapore Exchange in 2008, so far there are no firms that have succeeded in doing so.
At the same time many companies are no longer interested in listing on the Singapore Exchange due to its small market with total daily transactions worth less than US$400 million, and its stringent provisions to be allowed to go public there compared to the HKEx, baochinhphu.vn reported.
Huy Vietnam, founded in 2007, raised $65 million from large investors, such as Templeton Asset Management, Fortress Capital, AIF Capital, New Asia Capital Partners and Welken, in April this year.
