The IPO ‘wave’ is back

Last weekend, more than 300 brokers and investors filled the auditorium at the introduction of the initial public offering (IPO) and listing of Dien May Xanh shares. At the same time, the livestream on Facebook had over 4,000 followers. The heat of this event, according to the leader of a securities company, is a sign that the IPO “wave” is returning after many months of silence.

Dien May Xanh is the first billion-dollar deal this year with a valuation of about 3.9 billion USD. The offering of 180 million shares is expected to end at the end of this month and be listed on Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange early next month. “The deal is very quick because from start to finish it is expected to take less than nine months,” said CEO Doan Van Hieu Em.

In addition to Dien May Xanh, many other businesses also plan to IPO from now until the end of the year. LPBS is the first securities company to offer more than 141.8 million shares, priced at 30,000 VND. Kafi Securities Company two months ago also mentioned its plan to mobilize 2,500 billion VND through IPO.

Bao Tin Manh Hai and DatVietVAC, two businesses operating together for more than 30 years but tight-lipped about their financial situation and shareholder structure, recently revealed a lot of information to gain momentum for their initial offering campaign.

Bao Tin Manh Hai said that the IPO is about to take place in the fourth quarter, and at the same time announced a series of information on revenue, profit, EPS, and store network. DatVietVAC regularly appears in large-scale events and meets individually with groups of investors to introduce its business model, operational efficiency and ambitions for the coming years. According to this company’s leader, the deal may take place in the second half of the year, but the exact timing depends on market developments, the level of investor interest and the progress of legal procedures.

In the field of fund management, PHFM is offering PHFM VNSHINE ETF certificates, expected to last until June 22. In the F&B sector, Jollibee Foods Corporation, the parent company of Highlands Coffee, is also considering plans to IPO and list this coffee chain early next year.

Explaining the return of the current “wave” of IPOsMr. Hoang Nam – Director of Research and Analysis, Vietcap Securities Company – said that the biggest impact factor is that Vietnamese stocks will be upgraded to secondary emerging from September 2026. The market can attract 6-8 billion USD in international capital flows, even up to 10 billion USD in a positive scenario. Most of this is active investment cash flow and can directly participate in IPO deals, helping businesses increase their ability to successfully raise capital.

Each business brings its own expectations when IPO. Mr. Winston Lu, General Director of Phu Hung Fund Management Company, said they are offering fund certificates at this time to catch foreign capital flows and the growing ETF investment trend. Mr. Lu said he “sees great opportunity” as the number of individual investors continues to increase and money gradually shifts from single stocks to index funds.

Meanwhile, Dien May Xanh wants the deal to kill many birds with one stone. According to Mr. Dong Quang Trung, Head of Investor Relations Department, previously this business operated as part of Mobile World (MWG) and did not publish financial reports, making it difficult for investors to accurately evaluate. IPO and listing can solve this problem, allowing the market to properly evaluate the value of the business. In addition, the deal also allows the business to build an independent management apparatus and “vindicate” the view that the electronics retail industry in Vietnam is saturated.

Forecasting IPO activities from now until the end of the year, Mr. Le Xuan Dong, Director of Market Research and Consulting of FiinGroup, said that the industry will be more diverse than last year, but the ability to successfully raise capital will also be more challenging.

According to him, more and more businesses in the fields of retail, F&B, entertainment, technology… plan to issue an initial public offering and list immediately afterward, instead of mostly being securities companies like 2025. These industries are not unfamiliar to the economy, but are rare on the stock exchange, where capitalization is currently focused mainly on banking, securities and real estate groups.

Many foreign investment funds have an investment strategy of only disbursing into listed enterprises, instead of private companies. Therefore, they expect businesses in many different sectors of the economy such as consumer goods, retail, technology, and infrastructure to list on the stock exchange to diversify their investment portfolios and spread risks.

FiinGroup experts believe that the number of IPO deals is likely to increase, but the scale of each issuance is smaller. The total value mobilized through the initial public offering is about VND 50,000 billion, equivalent or not much higher than 2025.

“In the context of the domestic economy and the world market facing many challenges, reaching this level can be considered a success,” Mr. Dong said.

The biggest challenge comes from the macro environment. Liquidity in the banking system is no longer as abundant as before, causing interest rates to remain at a higher level, reducing the attractiveness of the stock market and putting pressure on IPO valuations. In addition, the Middle East conflict and trade tensions cause costs to increase, profit margins and business growth prospects to decrease.

In recent offering events, what investors are most concerned about is whether the business will fall into the same situation as the deals in 2025: IPO “sold out”, but after listing, the stock performance goes backwards.

According to the leader of a securities company, the cautious mentality is understandable, especially for individual investors, because they have received a lot of positive information during the offering and listing phase, leading to great expectations when the business goes public.

Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Le Xuan Dong said that individual investors are gradually becoming more strict before each disbursement decision. Unlike the excitement over last year’s big deals, investors may not pour money into IPO businesses if they are still hesitant about valuation. Businesses also understand that this year there is no longer a scenario where every offer will have a buyer like before. The success of the deal now depends more on management capacity, business strategy, growth prospects and reasonable valuation, instead of just waiting for the excitement of cash flow.

The fact that investors are more careful in choosing IPO stocks, according to Mr. Dong, causes businesses to change their approach. Many businesses used to take advantage of opportunities when there was cheap cash flow, but most are switching to a more methodical and long-term preparation strategy. They hired a consulting unit to comprehensively restructure strategy, ownership, legality and finance before the IPO. Some units have started building Boards of Directors with independent members, rehearsing periodic information disclosure in English and soon organizing promotional activities.