Top 50 prestigious public companies in 2023: Shooting stars and unpredictable forecasts

Top 50 public companies of 2023 sees major changes

Top 10 prestigious public companies in 2023. Source Vietnam Report

Banks try to withstand the volatility

If in 2022, topping the Top 10 prestigious and effective public companies were famous names such as Vinhomes Joint Stock Company, Hoa Phat Group Joint Stock Company, Masan Group Joint Stock Company, and Mobile World Investment Joint Stock Company, this list in 2023 has had a great change with the upper hand of the banking industry. The Vinhomes Joint Stock Company topping the list in 2022, has been pushed to the bottom of the table to make room for the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam.

In particular, a series of famous enterprises such as Hoa Phat, Masan, and Mobile World had to leave the top 10, although they were the leading names last year to make room for PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Chemical Corporation - JSC; FPT Joint Stock Company and a series of bank names such as Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank; Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank; Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank; Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank; Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank. Most of these banks are still standing and honoured through the tumultuous years because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The factors most affect the reputation and efficiency of public companies in 2023

This is a welcome point in the context that in 2022, Vietnam's stock market was under strong pressure from geopolitics, macroeconomic instability and tight monetary policies of many central banks around the world, a high-interest rate environment, exchange rate pressure along with a decrease of investors' confidence in this capital channel after a series of cases of economic corruption and stock market manipulation. The VN-Index plunged from an all-time high of over 1,500 points set on January 6, 2022, to a low of 874 points in mid-November 2022. Total capital mobilization on the stock market 2022 reached VND 351,831 billion, down 22% compared to the previous year.

In the first 4 months of 2023, Vietnam's stock market struggled and differentiated, continuously increasing and decreasing. By the end of April, the VN-Index decreased compared to the previous month.

Factors create value

The state of constant volatility of the economy and stock market, especially when market confidence is at a low level after recent events, reputation and efficiency play a core role in the success of the public enterprise because it determines investor confidence, improve access to capital, impacts market valuation, provides a competitive advantage and strengthens stakeholder relationships.

According to a survey by Vietjnam Report, corporate liquidity and valuation are in the top 7 factors that have the most influence on the reputation and efficiency of public enterprises this year, based on votes on a 5-point scale of professionals and public enterprises. Notably, dividend policy has risen from 8th rank last year to 6th most influential factor in 2023 (up from 3.77 points to 4.14 points). This is a factor associated with corporate governance. Consistency in dividend payments and dividend growth rates can help investors assess a business's financial performance and stability over time.

In addition, factors related to communication are recognized to have a strong impact on the reputation and effectiveness of enterprises. In the past period, after mistakes in corporate bond issuance, a frozen real estate market, and a wave of false rumours, only 67.4% of enterprises reached the "safe" communication threshold, reaching 87.8% and 91.5%, respectively, in 2022 and 2021. The percentage of enterprises reaching the "best" threshold is even narrowed significantly compared to the previous 2 years, reaching only 54.7% compared to 79.3% and 82.9%.

In that context, in general, Vietnam Report's research still shows the top 6 potential industries with the best growth stocks, including Banking, Food Production, Power Production and Distribution, Oil and Gas Production, Tourism and Entertainment, Pharmaceuticals, Construction and Materials.

However, most experts and enterprises being asked said that the scenario of a breakthrough of any industry group would be unlikely in the whole market. The top 6 mentioned above are the industries that are assessed to be stable and have more prosperous opportunities than the generally non-positive average of the remaining industries in the context of the first quarter of 2023, the total profit after tax of public enterprises decreased by 26.3% over the same period.

Currently, most expect many support policies from ministries and agencies, from financial and monetary policies, to gradually penetrate and promote efficiency to increase the growth rate in later quarters of the year.