Securities companies restructuring to rescue themselves

Securities companies have laid off a lot of officers in an effort to cut out waste in the organizations, to rescue themselves before the God saves them.

Two years ago, securities investors once found it difficult to squeeze into the Dong Duong Securities Company’s (DDS) trading floor. There on the trading floor, people would feel the bustling atmosphere of the stock trade. However, the company nowadays cannot hold out any more in the current difficulties and it has decided to stop providing brokerage service. As a result, securities investors’ accounts have been transferred to Kim Eng Vietnam Securities Company.

H.T, a securities broker who has been working in the field since 2000, is one of the few officers who have left Sacombank Securities Company. According to T, this is for the second time the company cuts down the staff, and most of the officers leaving this time are senior officers and even managers. Prior to that, Sacombank Securities Company (SBS) aid off 90 officers in March and April. They were mostly brokers and the officers who could not extend the labor contracts.

SBS is now under a restructuring process, partially because the company, which is taking loss, cannot bear the bulky staff and earn enough money to pay for all. H.T said that he still does not know where to go, because he does not have many choices. Other securities companies now also have to scale down their business and cut out the staff.

“I still cannot imagine that I will undertake another job, because I have been working in the field for the last 12 years,” he said.

The stock market is experiencing the most difficult days since the day it was established in 2000. For the last many months, the trading volume of the two bourses has been less than 1000 billion dong per trading session, which has led to the sharp fall of the turnover of securities companies from the brokerage service.

Statistics show that the transactions at the 10 securities companies which are holding the biggest market share accounted for 50 percent of total transactions in the third quarter of the year. This means that the other 90 securities companies had to share the other 50 percent of market share.

Like many other securities companies, DDS has invested heavily on the labor force and operating system. However, the gloomy market has made the company unable to hold out and forced it to close the brokerage division.

An officer of DDS said that most of brokers of the company have been sacked and they are now looking for new jobs.

Le Minh Tam, General Director of Kim Eng Vietnam said that Kim Eng is receiving some applications for jobs from those who have left other securities companies. He also said that besides DDS, Kim Eng is negotiating with two other securities companies about the taking over of investors’ transaction accounts from the two companies.

Preliminary statistics show that at least 60 branches and transaction offices have to shut down since the beginning of the year. Many companies only retain the most important divisions to survive the most difficult period.

This is the situation of the majority of the 105 operational securities companies: they are trying to restructure themselves. SBS is restructuring with the staff coming from Sacombank, while the Military Bank is also looking for a new way for its Thang Long securities company.

The State Securities Commission has announced that 2012 is the year for restructuring the stock market. Prior to that, Nguyen Son, Director of the Market Development Department of SSC said on local newspapers that at least 20 securities companies “have problems”.

Source: SGTT

Tags: vietnam stock, Vietnam stock market, VNindex