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Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – In the context of impressive growth of the stock market, many companies have flocked to issue shares to raise capital, but not all achieve the expected result.

The first half of 2021 witnessed positive movements of the Vietnamese stock market with significant liquidity. FiinGroup statistics show that in 2021, listed companies plan to increase their equity size by 3.8 percent, equivalent to 102.6 trillion VND (4.5 billion USD) through share issuance, a record so far.

From the beginning of this year, they have successfully issued about 20.3 trillion VND and are planning to issue more than 82.3 trillion VND in the year-end period.

When companies announced their issuance plans, stocks in the banking and securities groups attracted great attention from investors, because the increase in capital would help the bank ensure the capital adequacy ratio (CAR), helping securities companies increase their lending capacity, thereby quickly improving market share and profits.

Stocks of banks and securities companies have attracted strong cash flow and have been the best growth industry groups since the beginning of the year.

Contrary to the success of securities and banks, some enterprises in other fields have not yet witnessed positive results.

The Dat Xanh Group Joint Stock Company (DXG) recently announced a plan to privately issue 200 million shares, accounting for 38.59 percent of the company’s outstanding shares.

The issue price is determined with a 20-percent discount of the average closing price of DXG shares in the last 20 trading days before the time the Board of Directors decides the specific issue price.

The market price of DXG at the time of announcement was 28,000 VND per share, so the issue price would be at 22,000 VND per share.

Together with the private placement, Dat Xanh also plans to issue an ESOP of 7 million shares at the price of zero Vietnamese dong.

As soon as the issuance plan was announced, DXG shares were sold strongly by investors and even fell to the floor price in two consecutive trading sessions of June 8 and June 9. The market price of DXG at the end of the trading session on June 9 was only 24,100 VND per share.

Rang Dong Light Source and Vacuum Flask JSC (RAL) announced the plan to issue 11 million shares to existing shareholders, equivalent to 91.1 percent of outstanding shares of the company, with an aim to build a factory in Hanoi’s Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park.

The issue price is determined to be 65 percent of the average price of 20 consecutive trading sessions before Rang Dong’s announcement date and not less than 110,000 VND per share.

At the time of announcement, RAL’s market price was around 220,000-230,000 VND per share, which means the issue price would range from 140,000-150,000 VND per share.

An issue price of up to “three digits” as in Rang Dong’s case can be considered a record high and this causes many obstacles for shareholders. If a shareholder has the right to buy 1,000 shares, he will have to spend hundreds of millions of dong and this is not a small number for many investors.

Although the issuance plan would help Rang Dong ensure financial resources to build a new factory, in the short term, many investors rushed to sell RAL shares, causing RAL to drop by nearly 30,000 VND or 13.3 percent after only two trading sessions.

Earlier in May, the Binh Thanh Import – Export Production & Trade JSC (GIL) stunned investors as it offered a plan to privately issue 16.8 million shares to investors at a low price of 35,000 VND per share, while the market price of GIL at that time was up to 80,000 VND per share.

After the plan, GIL prices on the stock market reversed with strong selling volume and the stock market price is now below 60,000 VND per share, a deep decrease compared to the time before the plan.

The issuance plan for existing shareholders can sometimes pressure “small” shareholders because they will have to pay more money, while it takes a long time for the business to prove its effectiveness from the mobilised capital, except for some cases where the effectiveness can be seen immediately such as securities and banking groups.

This is a big barrier since individual investors do not often stay persistent in accompanying businesses. Many investors often use high margin, so when the companies announce the issuance plan to existing shareholders, these investors rush to sell shares because they face difficult financial arrangements in the short term./.

VNA

At the meeting, Vietnamese officer Chien inquired after the recipients and shared that COVID-19 has caused difficulties for the Cambodian people in general and the Mondulkiri provincial armed forces in particular.

Chien hoped that the border protection forces of the Vietnamese province of Dak Lak and Cambodian province of Mondulkiri will promote solidarity, boost win-win cooperation, and enhance coordination in border management and protection.

He also suggested the two sides regularly exchange information, jointly prevent crimes, handle illegal entry and exit cases and effectively prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the event, the Dak Lak provincial Border Guard Command presented medical supplies and other necessaries, worth VND 100 million in total, to O Ro, Me Ruoch and Co Bal Dom Ray land border police stations under the Mondulkiri provincial Police Department and three platoons under Company 3 of Mobile Battalion No.2 of Mondulkiri Military Sub-region.

A representative of the Mondulkiri provincial border protection forces thanked the Vietnamese border guard force for their sentiment, thoughtfulness, and valuable and effective support. He stressed that the Cambodian armed forces will further coordinate with the Vietnamese side to fulfill their assignments, boost patrols and monitoring along the shared borderline, and prevent COVID-19 from spreading to either country through the borderline.

The timely support from the Dak Lak border guard force demonstrated the solidarity, friendship with, and mutual support for the Cambodian side in their fight against the complicated COVID-19 situation in the country.

Source: bienphong

Translated by Mai Huong

During the talks, the Cambodian Defense Minister congratulated General Giang for being promoted to Minister of National Defense and expressed his belief that the Vietnamese defense minister will make more important contributions to strengthening cooperation between the two militaries.

On the occasion, the Cambodian Defense Minister thanked Vietnam for its timely dispatch of experts and medical supplies to assist Cambodia’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

For his part, General Giang highlighted the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces’ efforts in combating SAR-CoV-2 over the past time and emphasized that Vietnam will stand side-by-side with and try its best to help Cambodia overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic. He affirmed that in any circumstances, the Vietnamese Party, State, and Army always attach great importance to promoting the fine neighborhood, traditional friendship, and comprehensive cooperation with Cambodia.

Giang believed that in the coming time the two sides will exert more efforts to strengthen Vietnam-Cambodia defense ties in an intensive manner, maintaining its role as one of the pillars in the bilateral relationship.

During the talks, the two defense ministers affirmed that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the two defense ministries have developed suitable and effective forms of cooperation, especially in training, mutual support in COVID-19 prevention and control, and border protection.

The two sides said that the complicated development of the COVID-19 pandemic in the coming time might affect the implementation of this year’s cooperation plans.

Therefore, the two countries should renew their cooperation methods, particularly in political and ideological education for troops of the two armies, the maintenance of the defense policy dialogue mechanism, personnel training, management of the shared borderline, and the fight against cross-border crimes, smuggling, drug trafficking, and illegal exits and entries.

The two defense ministers also agreed to continue supporting each other at multilateral forums to which both militaries are members.

Translated by Tran Hoai

Hanoi (VNA) – Mastering technology and constantly creating innovations are the ongoing aims of scientific and technological development and application projects conducted by the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam). The success of such projects has generated trillions of VND for Vietnam, ensuring the profitability of oil and gas fields and plants and helping many localities improve people’s living standards.

Constant endeavour throughout 60 years of development

Developing and applying science and technology are an ongoing task for PetroVietnam, as assigned by the Party and the Government.

The Politburo issued Resolution No 41-NQ/TW, dated July 23, 2015, on the strategy for developing Vietnam’s oil and gas industry to 2025 and vision to 2035, and Resolution No 55-NQ/TW, dated February 11, 2020, on the national energy development strategy to 2030 and vision to 2045. Both resolutions stress that PetroVietnam must further apply scientific and technological advances in petroleum exploration as well as the production and trading of oil and gas, electricity, fertiliser, and new energy such as shale oil, gas hydrate, and hydrogen gas, so as to guarantee national energy security.

The group’s development strategy also emphasises the overall goal of building strong scientific and technological capacity by adopting breakthrough solutions, which is considered a foundation for PetroVietnam to accelerate its growth and develop sustainably.

Over its 60 years of development, it has worked to improve its sci-tech development and application capacity, adopted advanced techniques and technologies, and optimised existing technologies in order to keep up with its counterparts in the region and the world.

The oil and gas sector has received hundreds of awards for its scientific and technological achievements, including the Ho Chi Minh and State Awards for Science and Technology, and prizes from the Vietnam Fund for Supporting Technological Creations (VIFOTECH).

This year, the six most outstanding projects in the sector have been nominated for the Ho Chi Minh and State Awards for Science and Technology by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Among its remarkable science and technology achievements, the research and construction of oversize and overweight oil and gas facilities at sea have been completed after 10 years of implementation; the development and application of technological solutions to collect, treat, and use associated gas in the fields of the Vietnam – Russia joint venture Vietsovpetro and nearby fields have been carried out continually for 25 years; and sci-tech application solutions to optimise the Dung Quat Oil Refinery’s production processes have been developed and completed after 12 years.

Momentum and foundation for sustainable development

Science and technology have been applied in all of PetroVietnam’s production and business endeavours.

The group has been boosting fundamental research, with findings viewed as providing a trustworthy scientific basis that is key to building its long-term development strategy and the country’s economic development plans. Fundamental research is also to pave the way for new in-depth studies seeking unconventional gases such as coal gas and gas hydrate.

Scientific research and technological development have also been encouraged by PetroVietnam via activities such as holding innovation competitions, honouring initiatives and inventions, organising sci-tech meetings and workshops, and opening forums to share information and experience.

The successful research, development, proposal, and application of scientific and technological solutions in the oil and gas industry have not only brought about enormous economic benefits for the country but also made significant contributions to oil and gas science in Vietnam and the world. They are also robust demonstration of the endless creativity of the Vietnamese people, including personnel in the oil and gas sector, who are entrusted with the task of turning the impossible into the possible.

On the occasion of the eighth Vietnam Science and Technology Day on May 18, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the Members’ Council of PetroVietnam Hoang Quoc Vuong sent a letter to collectives, individuals, and those involved in the group’s scientific and technological research activities. The letter states that, in 2021, the group began to implement its scientific research plan for the 2021-2025 period, with important breakthrough programmes that will provide a foundation for developing key products and services able to compete with rivals in the domestic and global markets.

Vuong also requested that relevant units focus their resources on carrying out the science and technology plan, and expressed a hope that the group’s science and technology researchers and managers will exert every effort to continually create innovations, seize and apply the achievements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in production and business activities, and devise breakthrough solutions, thereby contributing to PetroVietnam’s stable and sustainable development./.

VNA

The annual Asia-Pacific Visa Security Summit was organised online for the first time. How would you evaluate the outcomes of the summit?

Pavan Muttireddy, director of Southeast Asia Risk Services at Visa

The summit is Visa’s largest event in the region and we have hosted it in various cities for 16 editions. Even though we had to move the summit online this year, we were able to welcome more than 1,500 partners and clients, which is double the number that we would have hosted normally. This serves as a signal to us that the industry believes that collaboration and shared learnings are more important now than ever.

Commerce is at a pivotal moment and we have seen an acceleration of all forms of digital commerce, whether it is using digital payments at the point of sale or being comfortable with buying online. At the summit, we also discussed a wide range of disruptions caused by the pandemic and these include changing consumer behaviours, the future of money movement, and how security must be a fundamental consideration for all innovative new ways to pay.

What key trends do you think will shape the global payments landscape in Asia-Pacific in the coming year?

Our Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes study identified three prevalent trends in consumer priorities.

First off, contactless payments have emerged as a health and safety priority among consumers, businesses and payment services providers. The pandemic has not only disrupted leisure spending with consumers giving up travel, fine-dining and luxury items but has also pushed consumers away from the use of cash and towards more modern payment alternatives that help them avoid personal contact and potential exposure.

Our study also showed 56 per cent of consumers carrying less cash in their wallets and conducting fewer cash transactions. Indeed, one in two Visa face-to-face payments in the Asia-Pacific are now contactless which demonstrates the growing preference for contactless payments over cash.

The very same sentiments have also elevated demand for e-commerce and expectations for speedy and quality service. Among active advocates of e-commerce, 85 per cent of them are purchasing on their applications once a week or more often and are discovering the convenience and potential savings on offer in e-commerce.

However, the substantial gain in consumer spending has also highlighted gaps in the payments ecosystem that require urgent attention. As consumption moves online, so have fraudsters, resulting in rising e-commerce fraud, elevating security concerns among all stakeholders.

According to our study, up to 51 per cent of Vietnamese consumers worry about their phones being infiltrated with malwares and viruses, and 41 per cent are concerned about information exposure when third parties gain unauthorised access to their devices. These are barriers to even greater adoption of digital payments that have to be addressed by innovations that are built around security.

How will these trends come into play in the Vietnamese context?

In Vietnam, like in many other countries, the pandemic has greatly accelerated changes in consumer behaviour, commerce and hence digital payments. According to our Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes study, QR code payments, mobile contactless payments, and online wallet payments are the categories that experienced the highest increase in usage. We believe that heightened levels of consumer interest in digital payments will remain even after the pandemic, as most respondents lauded the security and convenience aspects of new payment methods.

There is generally high awareness of the most popular contactless payment methods in Vietnam. There is a very diverse landscape for both QR payments and e-wallets with both domestic and foreign entrants offering consumers choices in the market. Vietnamese consumers are also relatively quick to adopt new technology and are open to trying solutions offered by small-scale, home-grown service providers in the QR code payment and e-wallet segments.

Consumers who already use contactless payments say it is safer and more convenient than carrying cash. Although 86 per cent believe it is safe when it comes to paying via smartphone, Visa believes more work needs to be done with the industry to earn consumers’ trust.

How is Visa addressing these rising security concerns and the changing security landscape?

As retail moves increasingly onto digital platforms, consumer expectations for safer and more convenient shopping experiences are elevated. In particular, they expect service providers to protect their transactions as well as personal and financial details.

One of the solutions Visa has introduced to reinforce security is Visa Token Service (VTS), which turns payment information like card numbers and other account details into randomised tokens. Even if the token is stolen, it does not contain any actual card information, rendering it useless to fraudsters.

This past year, VTS has been growing at a tremendous pace as more issuers and merchants invest in security. It had taken Visa more than five years to issue 1.4 billion tokens worldwide, but now we have crossed the two billion mark in just 10 months. VTS is now one of the largest payments security platforms in the market, safeguarding clients’ data while empowering consumers and vendors with card-on-file capabilities that make shopping a breeze on e-commerce platforms so consumers don’t need to fill a form every time they make a payment.

Another security feature that improves convenience for card users is Visa Secure, which uses the latest EMV® 3-D Secure technology for e-commerce purchases. It adds another layer of defence so financial institutions and sellers can be confident that the transactions are genuine. This security feature can reduce merchant risks from lost sales and offers to boost the shopping experience for customers.

At Visa, we are recommending that organisations emphasise significantly on promoting the culture of cybersecurity and have a robust governance framework in place with a mandate to protect it from data compromises.