Securities firms ride stock market boom to hike capital

The board of directors of leading brokerage firm SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) has approved a plan to increase its charter capital by 70 percent to VND11 trillion ($477 million), which is its biggest hike ever.

It plans to issue 219.1 million bonus shares, a maximum of 10 million shares to employees, and an additional 104 million shares in private placement to raise funds for margin financing.

If the capital hike is successful, the firm will have higher a charter capital than major lenders like the LienVietPostBank,TPBank, ABBank and OCB.

Viet Capital Securities plans to double its charter capital to VND3.3 trillion by issuing 166.5 million shares to existing shareholders.

VNDirect Securities JSC also plans to double its charter capital to VND4.4 trillion by issuing 214.4 million shares to existing shareholders. It said that the capital hike would fund margin financing and other business activities.

The Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HCM) has announced its plan to issue 152.5 million shares for VND2.1 trillion, raising its charter capital by 50 percent to over VND4.5 trillion.

The estimated charter capital of VNDirect and HCM are higher than the current charter capital of some lenders including Kienlongbank, Saigonbank and PG Bank.

Tien Phong Securities, a subsidiary of private lender TPBank, also announced it will issue 100 million shares to existing shareholders to double its charter capital to VND2 trillion.

The highest capital hike is planned by brokerage Hoa Binh Securities at 300 percent. It plans to issue nearly 33 million shares to its shareholders and issue an additional 66 million shares in private placement, raising its charter capital to VND1.3 trillion.

According to financial database FiinPro, 14 securities firms have announced plans to issue a total of 1.25 billion shares worth over VND10 trillion this year.

The total number of stock trading accounts was more than 3.1 million at the end of April. Apart from 11,700 accounts of domestic organizations, the rest were of individual investors.

The participation of new investors has made the average trading value in April rise 17 percent month-on-month to VND22.5 trillion.