Vietnam CFO Summit 2011 has been much expected by the business community because it will discuss the most important matter now for businesses – how to optimize the capital structure.

In medium term, businesses should think of developing the capital mobilization channels through corporate bond issuance. They should also think of merger and acquisition (M&A), said Vu Dang Vinh, General Director of Vietnam Report.

Could you please tell us what will the managers of big enterprises discuss at the upcoming Vietnam CFO Summit?

Vu Dang Vinh: As you may know, capital is the most important input factor for all the production and business of enterprises. In the current circumstances, when we have just escaped from the effects of the global economic crisis and we still have to cope with a lot of difficulties, including the high inflation, fluctuating exchange rate, the lackluster stock market, especially, with the tightened monetary policies, it is now difficult than ever to access capital sources.

Therefore, the Vietnam CFO Summit 2011 will focus on optimizing the current capital structure and expanding different capital mobilization channels in order to attract more capital for enterprises. The issues including what to do to mobilize capital through unfamiliar channels, and how to better access the bank loans will be discussed at the conference.

Which other potential capital channels do you think Vietnamese enterprises should think of when they are facing many difficulties with their familiar capital channels?

Vu Dang Vinh: The question will be discussed and answered at the conference. I personally think that in short term, enterprises should rely on their inner strength to consolidate their capital structure and increase the capital use efficiency, rather than mobilizing too much more capital. Before trying to look for capital channels, it is necessary for enterprises to think about how to use the existing capital most effectively.

Meanwhile, in medium term, Vietnamese enterprises, especially the ones in VNR500 (the list of 500 Vietnamese biggest enterprises – reporter), FAST500 (the list of 500 fastest growing enterprises) and V1000 (the list of 1000 biggest tax payers), should think of issuing corporate bonds. This is really a very potential capital mobilization tool for enterprises, and Vietnamese enterprises should draw up the plan to gradually consider corporate bond issuance a part of the companies’ financial strategies.

There is another capital channel Vietnamese enterprises should think of – the merger and acquisition M&A. This is the quickest way to develop markets, diversify business and increase capital.

As far as I know, a quick survey on capital mobilization of enterprises will be carried out right at the conference. What is the purpose of the survey?

Vu Dang Vinh: Though the conference will last one day only, we will still carry out a quick survey to find out the opinions of Vietnamese big enterprises about the difficulties, challenges and obstacles in the capital mobilization, about the capital channels as well as the ways of accessing capital enterprises will follow in the time to come.

Especially, we will focus on surveying the risk management and capital mobilization cost management at big and fast growing enterprises.

Besides this, the survey also aims to find out the business result of Vietnamese enterprises in the first six months of the year and their plan for the next six months.

The results will be made public right at the conference.

VEF