Losing Broker Faces Delisting Threat

The company posted a loss of VND99 billion ($4.7 million) last year due to the difficulties of the market and weak information technology systems, Phong told the publication Dau tu Chung khoan (Securities Investment). In 2010, the brokerage also lost over VND90 billion ($4.2 million).

Phong said the company’s top priority this year was to break this trend and posted a modest profit. Under State Securities Commision regulations, listed firms which post losses three years in a row are asked to delist shares from the stock exchange.

However, the firm’s leaders were still uncertain about the sustainable rally of the market, which would hinder it from reaching its targets.

“If the market stops hitting new lows, our aims can be reached,” said company chairman Nguyen Thi Phuc Lam.

The leading task, therefore, was to deploy core technology system to serve risk management, Phong said.

His company has been implementing margin trading and its new system for a week, which is supported by the total of VND750 billion ($35.7 million) in cash and bonds. In the first quarter of this year, the company earned a profit of VND10.4 billion ($490,000), accounting for 71.5 per cent of the year plan. While self-trading revenue declined 47 per cent over the same period last year, other sources of revenue rose around 50 per cent.