Vietnam is typically one of Asia’s quieter capital markets. In recent years there have been just a handful of deals annually. But a small number of bulge-bracket firms have strong local connections, which means most business is led by international names.
The deal flow this year, however, dried up and fell behind compared to smaller frontier markets.
There was just one trade during the awards period; Heineken sold a D1.2 trillion ($52 million) block of Sabeco stock in November 2019, sole led by Credit Suisse.
Vietnam’s bond market, meanwhile, sees sparse corporate issuance with trading mainly in government notes, a business dominated by Techcom Securities, a subsidiary of Techcombank.
The award winner this year was judged based on its prowess in the secondary market for trading stocks, fund certificates and covered warrants.
Trading is where SSI Securities comes into its own, as the top broker on Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (Hose) – a position it retained throughout the severe coronavirus-fuelled volatility in the country’s stock market in March.
In the first half of 2020, SSI had a 13.4% share of all trading business on the exchange, trailed by its closest competitors Ho Chi Minh City Securities and Viet Capital Securities which had 9.7% and 9.2% of the market, respectively, according to Hose data.
The firm also led the trio at the top of the broker league table throughout 2019, handling 13.6% of all trades in the third quarter and 14.5% in the fourth quarter.
Considering the lack of primary capital markets activity over the past year, securities houses’ other businesses are the main measure for this award.
Its consistent dominance in trading under managing director Bui The Tan puts the firm well above its rivals.