From Wall Street to Asia: Vietnamese firms diversify IPO options 

[HO CHI MINH CITY] After years of chasing the prestige of Wall Street, Vietnam’s most ambitious companies are increasingly looking closer to home, with Hong Kong and Singapore emerging as favoured overseas listing venues, alongside the US.

VinFast-linked electric taxi operator Green and Smart Mobility is working towards an international listing at a valuation of around US$20 billion, with Hong Kong touted as a potential venue as early as 2027, based on a Reuters report.

Vietnam’s biotech firm Gene Solutions is also raising a pre-initial public offering (IPO) round and weighing a Hong Kong or Singapore listing – markets where many of its regional peers are already active.

Advisers and bankers said Asian listing venues are offering a combination of regional proximity, deeper investor pools than the domestic one, as well as more flexible listing frameworks suited to current Vietnamese companies’ size and structure.

They also present lower execution risk while still providing strong branding for companies moving from domestic champions to regional players – a momentum that is building amid Vietnam’s ambitious growth story.

For much of the past decade, a US listing was the ultimate trophy for Vietnam’s most ambitious companies.

Technology companies such as VNG, Tiki and Loship, along with corporate ventures including Bamboo Airways and VinFast, had long pointed to Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as their eventual destination, even as most remained some distance away from meeting the regulatory and financial demands of a US listing.

Reality has been sobering. Most have yet to debut in the US through a conventional IPO, with high-profile cases such as VinFast entering the market via a blank-cheque merger and VNG withdrawing its filing after less than six months.

Other marquee names appear to be keeping their listing options open.

Vietnam’s largest coffee chain Highlands Coffee – majority-owned by the Philippines’ Jollibee Foods – and Masan Group’s integrated retail and consumer platform The CrownX previously said they were considering Hong Kong, Singapore and the US as potential listing venues. A domestic listing in Vietnam also remains on the table.

Asia courtship 

Last year, Hong Kong reclaimed its position as the world’s top IPO fundraising venue, according to major accounting firms.

Deloitte estimated that Hong Kong completed 114 IPOs last year, raising HK$286.3 billion (S$47.2 billion), a more than three times leap in proceeds raised in 2024. It also forecast about 160 new listings raising at least HK$300 billion in the Hong Kong market this year, backed by a pipeline of more than 300 listing applications.

Besides attracting a multitude of mainland companies with strong international presence, the Asian financial hub – known as the gateway to China – is also actively courting South-east Asian issuers.

Its regulators are further reviewing the regimes for dual primary and secondary listings, deepening collaboration between Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) and South-east Asian counterparts, and establishing more targeted pathways to facilitate overseas companies seeking a Hong Kong listing.

In a December blog post, HKEX chief executive Bonnie Chan noted that the exchange in 2025 welcomed companies from Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

She said the exchange aims to “bring exciting Asian markets, such as South-east Asia, to investors in the Chinese mainland”, as well as position Hong Kong as a regional fundraising platform to “concentrate more Asian growth opportunities for global investors”.

Meanwhile in Singapore, the move to create a structured bridge with Nasdaq for dual listings is being closely watched by larger Vietnamese groups as it offers a potential “two-step” route, said Trinh Bui, capital markets services partner at Deloitte Vietnam.

“It starts with a Singapore listing in a familiar Asian environment and later extends to the US, without repeating the whole process from scratch,” he added. 

Jimmy Seet, capital markets partner at PwC Singapore, echoed this viewpoint. He noted that besides simplifying access for companies to both Asian and US investors through the SGX-Nasdaq linkage, which is set to go live by mid-2026, the city-state also offers a S$5 billion Equity Market Development Programme aimed at drawing and retaining active Singapore-equity capital. 

“(These measures) will notably enhance the Singapore Exchange’s appeal to early-stage, high-growth companies – particularly in deep tech and artificial intelligence – that require substantial growth capital and broad regional and global investor support,” he added. 

Looking East as the first step

For Vietnamese companies, the appeal of Hong Kong and Singapore goes beyond market momentum. Deloitte’s Bui believed that regional exchanges are simply a better fit for most Vietnamese issuers at this stage. 

As Vietnam progresses towards full emerging market status, domestic and regional listings offer a practical way to broaden firms’ investor base, enhance governance credentials and lower funding costs, without overstretching internal capacity.

Accounting and disclosure standards in Hong Kong and Singapore are also closer to International Financial Reporting Standards, which Vietnam is gradually adopting. This reduces the regulatory leap compared with the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Securities and Exchange Commission regime. 

“They offer access to Asian investors who already understand Vietnam, whereas a US listing remains more suitable for a small number of very large, globally scaled companies,” Bui said.

While Vietnam’s bourses are more restrictive for loss-making companies, he noted that regional bourses offer both main and growth boards, accommodating mid-sized companies, lower initial free floats and pre-profit growth stories.

Compared to the US capital market, Hong Kong and Singapore are also more accustomed to family ownership, concentrated shareholdings and state influence – features that remain common in the South-east Asian country.

“A regional listing is a more manageable first step before pursuing a global listing,” he added, even if it means trading off the deeper liquidity and branding of the US market.

US still in play

Despite the eastward pivot, Wall Street remains on the radar as it offers the world’s deepest pool of capital. For small and mid-cap companies, new pathways have also emerged to pursue the US dream without immediately facing the full rigours of Nasdaq or NYSE.

Dr Marcuz Tan, chief executive at Boustead Apex, an IPO adviser for Asian firms targeting US capital markets, said his firm typically works with companies valued at US$200 million to US$300 million. It takes them through a staged route: first securing to be coded and trade on OTC Markets, followed by an uplisting to Nasdaq or NYSE within 12 to 18 months.

“We call the two-step approach almost like going to high school before going to university,” he said, noting that Boustead is currently working with almost 10 Asian companies following this route.

“It helps to make them ready so that they won’t go in there and get shot down,” he added, underlining that OTC listings allow companies to build investor familiarity, strengthen governance and prepare for the scrutiny of major US exchanges.

The reassessment has been reinforced by volatile outcomes from earlier US listings. For instance, VinFast’s valuation plunged from its August 2023 debut, with market capitalisation falling about 25 times so far from a peak of around US$200 billion.

The two-step process is closely coordinated with Raffles Capital, a Boustead Apex shareholder. Within South-east Asia, Dr Charlie In, founder of Raffles Capital, said the firm makes investments in what it calls “VIP” markets – Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines – with the explicit intention of grooming companies for US listings.

“These three South-east Asian markets are where local unicorns are most likely to emerge, and domestic capital markets are still relatively shallow,” he said. In fact, he expects at least two Vietnamese firms in Raffles Capital’s portfolio to pursue OTC listings in the US this year.

Dr Tan said US markets remain more liquid and can offer higher valuations, even after higher compliance costs. But the bar is rising: Nasdaq is lifting minimum fundraising thresholds to US$15 million for new issuers and US$25 million for China-based companies.

“The keyword here is internationalisation. As an international company, reaching out to the world’s largest capital markets is exactly what you need,” Dr Tan said.

He added: “Listing is not the end of the story – it’s only the beginning. As a public company, you now have the opportunity to tap what we call cheap capital and grow your business exponentially.”