Financial timess

Nirukt Sapru joins the Global Advisory Board of Timo Digital Bank platform With more than 34 years of experience in retail, commercial and investment banking, Nirukt possesses deep emerging market experience across Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, coupled with having run businesses in the OECD markets of Australia, Europe, and North America. Most recently, he served as Standard Chartered Bank CEO for Vietnam and Cluster CEO for ASEAN and South Asia cluster markets. During his tenure, Standard Chartered Bank Vietnam became one of the leading international banking franchises in Vietnam and he is in particular credited for building out a digital retail franchise. Prior to joining Standard Chartered, Nirukt was global head of Emerging Markets and Leverage Finance for ABN AMRO Bank based in London. His extensive knowledge and experience in Vietnam and other financial markets will allow him to contribute significantly to the long-term domestic and international development of Timo. Both Nirukt and Timo strongly believe that any strategy must be based on customer-centricity. “Timo has an extraordinary cloud based native digital platform which allows it to provide a truly world-class digital solution for its customers,” said Nirukt. “With its obsession with customer outcomes, I am excited to join the team at Timo to serve our customers and give them a truly world class customised experience.” With this appointment, Timo gains an exciting opportunity to understand international financial development trends and customise them to the digital banking ecosystem in Vietnam. Nirukt will therefore play a key advising, supporting, and empowering role for Timo’s senior management, complementing and validating strategic matters. Setting up a Global Advisory Board is crucial to assist Timo in realising its aspirations of becoming the preferred “financial partner” for customers and provide the best financial experience anytime, …

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The sudden surge in individual investors that had inundated the stock markets throughout last year has not waned in the first two months of 2021, with the VN-Index exhausting at a historical peak of 1,200 points. An unstoppable wave looks to continue in coming months. Increase in new accounts During the second half of 2020, the stock market in Vietnam was overwhelmed with a huge number of individual investors showing an unprecedented boom in the market, that had not appeared in the last twenty years. However, in 2021 we may see new records. Data collected by the Securities Depository Center shows that in March alone, there were 113,191 new accounts of individual investors in the country. It must be emphasized that in the history of the stock market, there has never been a month with the number of individual accounts in the country exceeding 100,000. The record so far was 86,107 accounts in January 2021, which number was overtaken by the March record. If 2020 saw a ‘tsunami’ of individual domestic investors participating in the stock market, the year 2021 will likely break this record. In the whole year of 2020, the number of new securities accounts of individual domestic investors reached 392,527, while in just the first three months of 2021, the number of new accounts has reached 256,316 already, more than 65% than last year. There are still nine months left in this year, and the market may expect to see a new big record. The aggressive will of small new individual investors has come as a huge surprise. According to FiinGroup, by 2020, the proportion of transactions of individual investors account for about 86% of the entire market. However, when the market enters a wave, this proportion can skyrocket to over 90%. In 2020, the remarkable growth of the market was due to the resources and initiatives taken by individual investors. If this happens again in 2021, the increase in individual investors many times over, will certainly raise the excitement …

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Conditions in place for offshore development, illustration photo Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE) is planning to work with foreign investors to pilot an offshore wind power project with a total capacity of about 2,000-3,000MW, according to chairman Nguyen Thanh Mai at the company’s annual general shareholders’ meeting on March 30. Electricity being in short supply and the future increase in selling price while coal and oil power sources pollute the environment were cited as the core factors by Mai to convince REE’s shareholders to invest in the company’s new project. She hopes to get a “good price when investment costs fall to about 10 US cents per kilowatt-hour and offshore wind prices will be at 11 US cents per kWh.” Mai said that the current technology allows for offshore wind power projects with poles tens of metres high. An offshore wind speed of about 10m per second could then operate a 10-17MW turbine. However, the current situation of wind power development in Vietnam, as well as the risks that investors may face, was not discussed. The prime minister and the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) in 2019 agreed to allow Enterprize Energy group to study and survey the Thang Long offshore wind power project in the central province of Binh Thuan with a capacity of 3,400MW and the total investment capital of around $11.9 billion. However, so far this project is still in the appraisal process by the MoIT. The investment in offshore wind power projects is in line with the development orientation of renewable energy sources of Binh Thuan People’s Committee. The Thang Long project will be financed to about 70-75 per cent by loans, with the remainder being the company’s equity. However, realising a loan of more than $8 billion will not be easy as investment in renewable energy is still facing many difficulties. Investors need to consider costs that will increase due to many factors arising in the construction process. …

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