The Ministry of Finance has just promulgated Circular No. 123/2015/TT-BTC dated August 18th on foreign holdings on Vietnam’s securities market. Accordingly, maximum permissible foreign holdings in public companies are determined according to Clause 2 Article 1 of Decree No. 60/2015/NĐ-CP. If a public company in which the foreign holding is not restricted wishes to restrict the foreign holding, its charter must specify the maximum permissible foreign holding. If the foreign holding of a public company exceeds the permissible limit, it must not be increased any further.
Foreign holdings in securities companies are not restricted as long as they satisfy conditions in Clause 21 and Clause 24 Article 1 of Decree No. 60/2015/NĐ-CP may hold 51% of charter capital of securities companies or over and each foreign investor other than the aforementioned organizations may hold less than 51% of charter capital of a securities company.
Circular No. 123/2015/TT-BTC comes into force from October 01, 2015 and replaces Circular No. 213/2012/TT-BTC.