SSI's employee supporting a customer. — Photo vietnamplus.vn

HÀ NỘI — High investment demand in the stock market is heating up the race to raise capital of securities firms.

Last Friday, SSI Securities Corporation (HoSE: SSI) received certificates of registration for a public offering of shares issued by the State Securities Commission (SSC).

The company has been approved to offer 497.4 million shares to existing shareholders. The asking price is VNĐ15,000 a share (US$0.65 a share), half the current market price of VNĐ29,250. The issuance is expected to mobilise nearly VNĐ7.5 trillion.

If the offering is successful, the charter capital of SSI will increase from nearly VNĐ9.95 trillion to more than VNĐ14.9 trillion, keeping its position as the securities company with the largest capital scale in the market.

A representative of SSI said that the gain in charter capital is to supplement business capital, especially improving margin lending and investment capacity. 

With rising interest rate pressure and the volatile stock market, the increase in capital will strengthen its strong financial potential, improve competitiveness, and continue to provide new products and services to meet the development of the stock market in the future.

Besides SSI starting its fund raising process, as of June, VNDirect Securities Corporation (VND), Saigon - Hanoi Securities JSC (SHS), VIX Securities JSC and VPBank Securities (formerly known as ASC Securities) have all officially completed the capital increase.

VNDirect completed raising its charter capital from VNĐ4.3 trillion to VNĐ12.2 trillion. VPBank Securities' charter capital advanced dramatically from VNĐ269 billion to more than VNĐ8.9 trillion, surpassing many big names to rank third in the top securities companies with the largest charter capital. 

SHS’s capital climbed from VNĐ3.3 trillion to VNĐ6.5 trillion, while VIX inched from VNĐ2.7 trillion to VNĐ5.5 trillion.

In the case of SSI and VNDirect, the value of capital mobilisation has been on par with some mid-range banks such as Eximbank (VNĐ12,355 billion), Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VNĐ13.7 trillion), and SeaBank (VNĐ14.8 trillion ).

In terms of mobilised fund through share offerings, SSI stands at the top position as setting a record of VNĐ7.46 trillion - the largest amount ever if this offering is successful. It was followed by VNDirect with VNĐ4.35 trillion, VIX (VNĐ4.1 trillion), SHS (VNĐ3.9 trillion), Tiền Phong Securities Corporation (VNĐ3.9 trillion) and BIDV Securities (VNĐ2.7 trillion).

This shows that the group of domestic companies is continuing to expand significantly. 

In the context of unstable market movements, increasing charter capital is also a way for many securities companies to have more money to pour into proprietary trading activities, with the expectation of higher profits. 

It is likely that the expansion in charter capital of securities companies will continue as the business prospects of listed enterprises are positive. — VNS