WEAKENING MARKET MAKES VIETNAMESE INSURANCE IPOS LESS ATTRACTIVE

Vietnamese insurers Bao Viet and PetroVietnam Insurance Co have discovered that the stockmarket is not a perpetual source of easy funds, with recent issues generating a disappointing response from the market, reports VietnamNet Bridge . Earlier this month PetroVietnam sold 810,000 shares in a repeat sale after investors sat on their hands during the company’s initial public offering in June. Meanwhile, Bao Viet, seen as one of the likely jewels in the crown of the Vietnamese exchange, saw only 2m shares sold of the 15m that it recently offered in a secondary auction. Bao Viet Securities deputy director Nguyen Quang Huy said that when the market had been “hot”, buyers had submitted unduly high bids for new shares, but now that the market has cooled, companies can no longer set any price they like, secure in the knowledge that the shares will sell.