Vu Quang Viet, Director of the SSC's LegalAffairs Department, said that by March 20, the national stock markethad total capitalisation of 1.2 trillion VND (57.1 million USD),representing 30.6 percent of Vietnam's GDP.
Over the past two anda half years, the national stock market had recorded an average tradingvalue of 3.16 trillion VND (150.4 million USD) each session, with 679stocks listed on the market with total face value of 441 billion VND (21million USD), he said.
Decree 58 also helped securitiescompanies restructure to improve their financial management, internaladministration and risk management, he added.
In an attempt toimprove the Decree, the SSC has collected ideas and opinions fromGovernment agencies, investors and companies involved in the securitiesbusiness.
Viet said that the new Decree will complete the legalframework for the securities market to match international rules, solvemarket problems for individuals and organisations, attract foreigninvestment and create a fair and transparent securities environment.
Itwill focus on several major issues, including private placement, inwhich shares were sold to a small number of selected investors withoutpublic announcement, and public placement, in which shares are madeavailable for sale on the public market, he said.
According tothe amended decree, private placements are intended to raise capital,reduce debts or exchange stakes in other companies (for public limitedcompanies), or to transform into public limited companies (forsecurities companies).
Any company that wants to issue privateplacement has to complete the sale within 90 days of the SSC receivingall of its registration papers.
If a company organises ashareholder meeting before a private placement is completed, the boardof directors will have to ask for permission from shareholders tocontinue.
The board of directors can only change plans on the useof capital if they are approved by shareholders and comply with companyregulations, and has to publish the amended plans to investors within10 days.
The company also has to report the total capital raisedfrom issuing private placements at shareholder meetings, and have itreviewed and confirmed by auditors.
On the other hand,individuals and organisations cannot issue public placements if theorganisation is unqualified to issue a public placement or theorganisation is selling shares publicly to become a company.
However,there are some exceptions for an organisation to sell shares, includingtransforming into a securities company, or selling the state's stakefrom a state-owned company to the public.
Public placements mustbe run by securities issuing companies, except for state-ownedorganisations selling their shares to non-state investors, or bigshareholders selling their stakes in public limited companies, orsecurities firms selling the warrants or rights to the market.-VNA