HÀ NỘI — Petrol and oil firms should focus more on investor relation (IR) activities to improve transparency, achieve fair-valuation securities and boost corporate governance.

That was the message heard at a conference held by the Việt Nam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) in Hà Nội on Tuesday.

Đinh Văn Sơn, from the PVN’s Member Council, said the IR activities still lacked professionalism and consistency despite their significant roles in maintaining strong and transparent relationship with investors.

Sơn stressed that it was critical to improve the quality of IR activities with the expectation that foreign capital would flow into petrol and oil stocks when Việt Nam’s securities market was upgraded to the emerging market status from its current frontier market in the 2020-22 period.

Under the PVN’s comprehensive restructuring plan, member companies would have a busy period with equitisation and capital divestment.

Experts said that investing property in IR activities would create a two-way communication channel which would significantly contribute to the success of  PVN’s restructuring process while consolidating their image and that of member companies.

Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Bích, deputy director of PetroVietnam Power Corporation, believes IR activities significantly affected securities prices.

Bích pointed out that if IR activities were efficient, firms would not catch the attention of investors and analysts, cause doubts about corporate value or cause low liquidity and underpriced securities value.

Nguyễn Thành Vinh from investment fund Dragon Capital said IR was a vital part of corporate governance to create sustainable economic value for stakeholders.

However, many firms were facing difficulties in implementing IR activities efficiently, Vinh said. He urged companies to commit to a more open culture to stakeholders, analysts and the press. PVN needed to have a consistent IR strategy, he said.

General director of brand consulting agency Le Bros Lê Quốc Vinh, said IR should be a part of PVN’s brand development strategy to increase the corporate value.

According to a representative from the State Securities Commission, solutions would be raised to enhance information transparency of listed companies.

The amended Law on Securities would be complete to regulate securities market operation.

The commission would also review existing regulations about information disclosure for amendments to promote transparency.

Three member companies of PVN were successfully privatised in 2018, namely PetroVietnam Power Corporation (POV), PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (OIL) and Bình Sơn Refining and Petrochemical Joint Stock Company (BSR).

Since 2012, PVN launched PVN Index which traced the fluctuations of 38 oil and gas stocks including PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (GAS), PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services Corporation (PVD) and PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Corporation (DPM), which aimed to enhance the transparency in business activities, management and information releasing of PVN and affiliates. — VNS