The Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Banking Group is pitching to service the corporate bond market in Vietnam, which is reopening after several slow years.

Tareq Muhmood, the bank’s chief executive for Vietnam, told “The Australia” newspaper that the market has been very quiet over the past two and a half years but ANZ has been one of the first banks to reactivate it recently with a bond issue.

"We are starting to see more interest in Vietnam as a destination for investment. I expect this will be very important over the next few years," he said.

Muhmood stated that at present, ANZ is putting some more resources and also talking to a lot of investors such as insurance companies and fund managers, both in the region and from Europe and North America.

“We are in discussions with a few other companies about their capital needs and we expect to be doing some more over the next few years,” he added.

The Vietnamese corporate bond market got off the ground after the country joined the World Trade Organisation in 2006 but it has been closed over recent years as the country’s economic growth has slowed.

With a young population of more than 90 million people, Vietnam is seen as one of the emerging markets of Southeast Asia.

Source: VNA