Vietnam's Biggest Companies Are Lining Up to IPO. The Stock Market Has Never Seen Anything Like It.
Dien May Xanh begins its IPO. Hoa Phat Agriculture lists. LPBank Securities gets approval to issue shares. With FTSE's September emerging market upgrade, Vietnam's stock market is seeing an unprecedented wave of listings.
Less than two months into 2026, multiple large Vietnamese companies have already launched IPOs or stock exchange listings.
Who Is in the Queue
On February 6, Hoa Phat Agriculture (HPA) and Gelex Infrastructure (GEL) listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) on the same day.
Hoa Phat Agriculture is the agriculture subsidiary of steel giant Hoa Phat Group. It issued 285 million shares and posted VND 1.6 trillion in profit in 2025.
Gelex Infrastructure completed its IPO of 100 million shares in late 2025. On its first trading day, the stock hit the price ceiling.
The most anticipated name this year is Dien May Xanh.
It is the electronics retail arm of Mobile World (MWG), Vietnam's largest retail group. The business covers the The Gioi Di Dong and Dien May Xanh brands, with a combined roughly 3,000 stores nationwide. Revenue hit VND 106 trillion in 2025, up 18% year on year.
On January 19, MWG officially kicked off the IPO roadmap with a target of completing it within the year.
Dien May Xanh accounts for about 65% of MWG's consolidated revenue and roughly 80% of its profit. Once listed, it will be one of Vietnam's biggest IPOs this year.
LPBank Securities (LPBS) has also received shareholder approval to issue approximately 142 million shares at VND 30,000 each, with plans to list on HOSE.
More are coming. Hoa Sen (HSG) plans to spin off its building materials retail brand Hoa Sen Home for a separate IPO. Highlands Coffee is in talks with exchanges in Singapore and Hong Kong about an overseas listing.
Dragon Capital estimates that Vietnam's IPO pipeline over the next three years could total USD 47 billion.
Why Now
Last October, FTSE Russell announced it would reclassify Vietnam from a frontier market to a secondary emerging market, effective September 21 this year.
But the upgrade comes with conditions. Vietnam must pass FTSE's interim review in March, which focuses on whether the "global broker mechanism" is in place, allowing foreign investors to trade through international brokers without opening a local Vietnamese account.
To meet this deadline, Vietnam introduced new regulations (Circular 08/2026) in February, officially enabling global broker trading.
The March review will determine whether the upgrade proceeds on schedule.
If it passes, passive funds tracking the FTSE Emerging Markets Index will automatically allocate to Vietnamese stocks. Brokerages estimate passive inflows alone at USD 600 million to USD 1.6 billion.
VinaCapital calculates that active capital typically runs five times the passive amount, putting total potential inflows in the billions.
Another driver is faster listing timelines. Previously, companies had to wait about 90 days after IPO completion to begin trading. New rules have compressed this to 30 days.
For companies, listing before the potential September FTSE upgrade means catching the wave of incoming foreign capital.
Where VN-Index Stands
As of February 24, VN-Index closed at 1,867 points, up over 40% for the full year 2025.
The forward P/E ratio sits at roughly 12.7 to 13 times, below the five-year average of 14.5 and below Southeast Asian peers like Thailand and Indonesia.
Multiple brokerages have set 2026 year-end targets between 2,000 and 2,100 points.
However, foreign investors were net sellers in Vietnam to the tune of over USD 5 billion in 2025, even as the index gained 40%.
Current momentum is driven by domestic investors. A major return of foreign capital has not happened yet.
Whether the FTSE upgrade can reverse this trend is the most important variable to watch this year.
