Shares of Southern Vietnam’s Kien Giang Construction Investment Consulting Group, which trades under the ticker CKG, increased by the maximum permitted under Vietnam stock market regulations in the last two trading sessions. This is after current share owners approved changes that would allow foreign investors to own up to 49 percent of the firm’s shares. This is up from zero percent prior to the announcement.

Vietnam currently applies foreign ownership limits to almost all stocks on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange. Of note, as of March 11, of 401 stocks listed on the HoSE, 371 stocks had foreign ownership limits. For 366 of those stocks, foreign ownership was capped at 50 percent or less. This can be a deterrent for foreign investors and limiting with respect to raising capital for local firms. It can also be logistically challenging when foreign ownership gets close to said caps. In fact, these limits are one factor holding the local exchange back from an upgrade from a frontier market to an emerging market.

That said, Vietnam’s real estate market has seen a lot of challenges of late and by extension so has the construction sector. In fact, this may be what is driving CKG to look for greater investment from outside Vietnam–from a peak VND 30,600 per share in August of last year, CKG shares were trading at 21,250 on Friday prior to the announcement.

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