The Government and the State Securities Commission (SSC) will have to improve the policies that have been preventing State-owned companies from being privatised, said officials and experts on April 1.

Bui Hoang Hai, the SSC's Deputy Director of Securities Issuance Management, said that 60 percent of IPOs last year were successful. They had a total value of 11.4 trillion VND (530.23 million USD).

Hai said that during the first three months of this year, the percentage of successful IPOs and divestment was 44 percent, with a total IPO value of 1.25 trillion VND (58.14 million USD).

He said that the reason for the lower numbers was slowness in information disclosure, adding that State-owned enterprises had to publish their profiles for IPO at least 20 days before they were auctioned.

However, many of them published their profiles much later, causing difficulties for investors to prepare capital and information about the auctioned enterprises, he said.

In addition, the auctioned enterprises only published basic information which was not attractive to strategic investors, he said.

The SSC's representative suggested that state-owned enterprises reveal more about their profiles and speed up the information disclosure to attract investors in a highly competitive market with limited sources of capital.

Nguyen Thi Hoang Lan, Vice General Director of the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), said her company asked the SSC and the Ministry of Finance to improve the Unlisted Public Company Market (Upcom) to attract strategic investors by dividing the market into smaller sectors and developing specific indexes for those sectors.

She said that these recommendations will help investors get easier access to information and reduce administrative procedures to support auctioned enterprises.

She said that HNX will work with securities companies and consulting companies to assist the auctioned enterprises.

During a conference in Hanoi on April 1, participants suggested ways of improving the quality of IPO and divestment for State-owned companies.

Hoang Nguyen Hoc, Vice General Director of the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), said that the SSC should allow State-owned companies to sell their stakes in even lots, which is an order for a security account of 100 shares for stocks.

He said that investors will find it cheaper, easier and more convenient to acquire state capital in even lots, raising the efficiency of IPO and divestment.

Vu Anh Minh, Director of the Transport Ministry's corporate management division, said that IPOs will help State-run companies improve their performances and make larger contribution to the state budget.-VNA