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Major real estate companies accounted for VND154 trillion ($5.93 billion), or 38.65%, of the total VND398 trillion ($15.32 billion) worth of corporate bonds issued in Vietnam since the beginning of 2026.

Data shows that issuers affiliated with or linked to Vingroup led the market, with total bond issuance of around VND69.41 trillion ($2.67 billion), equivalent to 17.42% of the total. They were followed by companies affiliated with or linked to Masterise, with around VND67.88 trillion, accounting for 17.03%. Together, the two groups raised around VND137.29 trillion ($5.29 billion), or over 34.45% of total corporate bond issuance since the beginning of the year.

The gap between the two leading groups is not large, but their fundraising structures differ. For Vingroup, issuance has been significantly concentrated at Vinhomes, which issued 17 bond packages with a total value of around VND51.5 trillion ($1.98 billion). Other issuers include Vinpearl, Thai Son, Can Gio Tourism Urban, and Green City Development.

Notably, many bond packages issued by Vinhomes and other companies in the Vingroup ecosystem were valued at between VND1 trillion ($38.5 million) and VND3 trillion. A series of Vinhomes bond packages have 36-month maturities and coupon rates of 12-12.5% per year.

While Vingroup’s large issuance volume is significantly concentrated at Vinhomes, the Masterise group has a different structure, with issuance conducted through multiple legal entities. According to the data, issuers belonging to the Masterise group include Hung Long, Hung Phat Invest Hanoi, Minh An, Masterise Lumiere Office, Thoi Dai Moi T&T, Parkland 53, Phat Dat, Thai Bao, and Thanh Quang.

Specifically, Hung Long issued a total of VND16 trillion ($616 million) in three offerings. Hung Phat Invest Hanoi issued VND9.3 trillion, while Thoi Dai Moi T&T had a single bond package worth VND8 trillion.

Many bond packages issued by the Masterise group were very large, ranging from VND5 trillion ($192.52 million) to VND7 trillion. Coupon rates were generally between 10% and 10.6% per year. The relatively low rates are also a key characteristic of these legal entities.

In terms of issuance value, Vinhomes ranked first with a bond package worth as much as VND15 trillion ($577.53 million), carrying a coupon rate of 12% per year. It was followed by a VND10.2 trillion issuance by Marina Center Investment Co., Ltd., a company linked to Sovico Group. This was also the longest-maturity bond package, at up to 120 months, while carrying a coupon rate of just 4% per year.

There were also issuers affiliated with or linked to MIK Group, Sun Group and Sunshine, among others, although their shares were not significant. Coupon rates ranged from 9.5% to 12.5% per year, with maturities of 36 to 60 months.

A notable aspect is the stated purpose of bond issuance by the Vingroup and Masterise ecosystems.

Companies belonging to the Vingroup family had three main purposes for issuing bonds: debt restructuring, at VND35.5 trillion ($1.37 billion), accounting for 51.1% of its total issuance; site clearance and related costs for the Olympic Sports Urban Area project in Hanoi, at VND29 trillion, or 41.8%; and the Van Village integrated tourism and resort urban project in the central city of Danang, at VND4.91 trillion, or 7.1%.

The structure of Vingroup’s bond-issuance purposes thus reflects two parallel needs: managing and restructuring debt obligations while also raising substantial capital to accelerate large-scale real estate and tourism projects.

For the Masterise group, affiliated legal entities used around VND30 trillion ($1.16 billion) raised from corporate bond issuance, equivalent to 44.2% of its total issuance this year, to acquire part of the low-rise and high-rise zones of the Ha Long Xanh integrated urban area in Tuan Chau, Dong Mai and Ha An wards, the northern city of Quang Ninh.

In addition, Hung Phat Invest Hanoi used VND9.3 trillion ($358.07 million) from corporate bonds to acquire High-Rise Residential Area No. 4, part of the International University Urban Area project in Ho Chi Minh City.

Minh An spent VND7.5 trillion from corporate bond proceeds acquiring the Cao Xa La project in Hanoi. Meanwhile, Thoi Dai Moi T&T used the entire VND8 trillion raised from its corporate bond issuance to transfer funds to Capitaland Tower to pay part of the corresponding transfer price to Can Gio Tourism Urban Joint Stock Company.

Apart from two bond lots issued by Phat Dat Real Estate Development Corp. whose purposes were unclear and one by Thai Bao Real Estate, which was used to advance part of the site-clearance costs for the Gia Binh 1 International Airport Urban Area project in Bac Ninh city, the remaining bond packages issued by entities affiliated with or linked to Masterise were used for mergers and acquisitions (M&As).

Why are corporate bonds concentrated among major groups?

The concentration of corporate bond flows among large non-financial corporate groups is not difficult to explain. Vingroup, Masterise Group, Sovico Group, MIK Group and Sun Group all have strong financial capacity and large asset bases.

Their solid financial foundations and strong reputations in their respective business fields not only give them room to develop large-scale projects, but also enable them to access the bond market with issuances worth trillions of VND (VND1 trillion = $38.5 million).

Conversely, when corporate bond buyers are mainly securities firms, banks and professional investment institutions, the ability of large companies to continuously raise capital through large bond issuances also partly reflects market confidence in their financial capacity, project execution capabilities, and debt repayment plans.

Dr. Bui Thanh Minh, deputy director at the Private Sector Development Research Board (Board IV) Office, said concentration in the stock market also creates new capital advantages for companies that already have advantages. As enterprise valuations increase, they may gain better access to issuing shares and bonds, using equity in mergers and acquisitions, and obtaining credit. Meanwhile, most small and medium-sized unlisted enterprises remain largely outside this process of increasing financial asset value.

“The capital allocation mechanism can cause this divergence to reinforce itself. Companies in the upper tier can borrow on more favorable terms and may issue shares and bonds or raise capital from strategic investors, allowing them to invest earlier in technology and continue expanding market share. Companies in the lower tier lack collateral, have less standardized financial statements and volatile cash flows, making borrowing more difficult; the lack of capital then prevents them from innovating, making it even harder to meet financing requirements,” he emphasized.

The issue, therefore, is not simply how to expand the corporate bond market, but, more importantly, how to ensure that capital flows in the market reach a broader range of businesses.

One proposed solution is to design different layers of capital to meet businesses’ diverse needs. This is particularly important because not every small business is suited to issuing bonds directly. Issuance costs, disclosure requirements, credit ratings and access to investors can make small-scale issuances inefficient. If all businesses are required to enter the bond market on their own, the gap between large and small companies may persist.

To address this issue, Dr. Minh proposed four different layers of capital.

The first is foundational capital for the majority of businesses, including working capital, factoring, supply-chain financing, financial leasing and credit guarantees for businesses with actual operations, orders and cash flows but insufficient collateral.

The second is transition capital, including medium- and long-term credit, green credit, equipment leasing, energy-efficiency funds and digital transformation support programs. This layer of capital should target investments where improvements in productivity, emissions reductions, traceability and the localization rate can be measured.

This is the layer that directly translates the spirit of the Politburo’s Resolution 57, dated December 22, 2024, on breakthroughs in science-technology, innovation and national digital transformation and Resolution 68, issued on May 4, 2025, on private-sector development into competitiveness at the enterprise level.

The third is risk capital for innovation. Venture capital funds, angel investors, private equity funds, co-investment mechanisms, research and development incentives, intellectual property valuation and sandbox frameworks need to be developed in a coordinated manner.

Not every technology project can be expected to immediately generate stable cash flows or have real estate available as collateral. A financial system seeking to support innovation needs a portion of capital that can accept the probability of failure, while managing risk through portfolios, performance milestones and transparent divestment mechanisms.

The fourth is linkage and growth capital. Politburo Resolution 10, dated on June 8, 2026, sets out the requirement that FDI capital should not only provide funding but also facilitate technology transfer, supplier development and linkages with domestic businesses. Therefore, credit, guarantee, co-financing and supplier-development programs should prioritize Vietnamese businesses capable of meeting the standards of major corporations, FDI companies and global supply chains.

At the same time, private companies capable of taking a leading role should have access to the equity and bond markets, project finance and M&A capital, while this access should be accompanied by modern governance, fair competition and the ability to support the development of the domestic business ecosystem.

The challenge of spreading capital, therefore, is not simply about putting more money into businesses that lack funding, but about creating a pathway through which businesses can move from foundational capital and transition capital to risk capital and growth capital. Each layer addresses a different bottleneck while creating the conditions for businesses to move to the next stage.

From this perspective, the next important issue is not only having multiple sources of capital, but ensuring that these channels are interconnected. Nguyen Ba Hung, chief economist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), stressed the need for connectivity among equity, bond, credit and private investment channels.

He cited the example of infrastructure projects in many countries, which often rely on bank credit during the construction phase because this is a high-risk stage. Once a project is completed and begins generating revenue, construction risk is reduced, allowing the company to issue long-term bonds to refinance and repay the bank loan. This then frees up bank capital to finance other projects.

According to him, this mechanism shows that capital does not necessarily have to remain with one company or within one financial channel throughout the life cycle of a project. Bank capital can come first, followed by bond financing; private capital can participate during the high-risk stage, while capital markets can take over once the project’s cash flows become more stable. It is this movement between channels that creates the capacity to recycle capital and expand the economy’s overall supply of funding.

In the context of corporate bonds, rather than expecting small and medium-sized enterprises to immediately become issuers large enough to access the market, mechanisms should be created to allow capital to flow through different tiers of businesses and financial channels throughout a project’s life cycle. In that case, the development of the bond market would not be measured solely by the amount of capital raised, but also by its ability to release and reallocate capital to other businesses, projects and sectors of the economy.

Attracting capital to the private sector is one of the key issues identified by the Politburo, the Government and regulatory agencies as they work to improve the growth model and develop the capital market.

Politburo Resolution 68 on private-sector development calls for diversifying sources of capital for the sector while improving regulations governing the corporate bond market and expanding stable, reasonably priced channels for private businesses to raise funds. The policy direction shows that the objective is not only to increase the amount of capital supplied to the economy, but also to broaden private businesses’ access to financing.

At the capital-market level, the Securities Market Development Strategy by 2030, approved by the Prime Minister on December 29, 2023, also identifies the securities market as an important channel for mobilizing medium- and long-term capital for the economy, while continuing to restructure the market, improve quality and develop its components in a coordinated manner. The strategy sets a target for total outstanding bonds to reach at least 58% of GDP by 2030, including corporate bonds at a minimum of 25% of GDP.

The legal framework governing the corporate bond market has recently been further strengthened with the Government’s Decree 200/2026/ND-CP, which replaces Decrees 153/2020, 65/2022 and 08/2023. According to the State Securities Commission (SSC), one of the decree’s objectives is to improve the legal framework, increase openness and transparency, enhance the effectiveness of management and supervision, and protect investors’ rights, while creating conditions for businesses to raise medium- and long-term capital for production, business activities and development investment.

In addition, the SSC is studying a mechanism to establish a dedicated market for startups to raise capital. The creation of a specialized trading platform is expected to provide a seamless connection between venture capital (VC), private equity (PE) and public capital markets. This would give startups greater opportunities to raise funds, expand their operations and improve transparency in their activities.

Vietnam’s economy is entering a period of growth with ambitious targets. In 2025, GDP grew 8.02%, bringing the size of the economy to around $514 billion. For 2026-2030, the country has set a target of average annual GDP growth of at least 10%, while seeking to maintain total society's investment at an average equivalent to around 40% of GDP each year. The amount of capital required to achieve these targets is substantial. Infrastructure investment needs alone are estimated by the World Bank (WB) at around $30 billion a year.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s financial system remains heavily dependent on bank credit. This is the main source of capital for the economy, but as demand for medium- and long-term funding rises sharply, continued heavy reliance on credit also creates constraints on the economy’s ability to meet its capital needs and puts additional pressure on the banking system. The WB has stressed the need to develop capital markets to supplement long-term financing, particularly for infrastructure investment and the transition to a high-income economy.

Diversifying channels for capital mobilization has therefore become an urgent requirement. Vietnam needs a more balanced financial structure in which bank credit, equities and corporate bonds play complementary roles. While equities provide equity capital, corporate bonds can provide medium- and long-term funding directly from the market, making them particularly suitable for sectors that require large amounts of capital and have long payback periods.

This direction has been established in policies adopted by the Party and State. The Politburo's Resolution 68-NQ/TW on private-sector development emphasizes the need to diversify sources of capital and improve the corporate bond market. The Securities Market Development Strategy by 2030 also sets a target for outstanding corporate bonds to reach at least 25% of GDP by that year.

Against a backdrop of growing demand for capital to support economic growth, the corporate bond market needs to expand rapidly but not overheated, with greater scale accompanied by transparency, safety and market discipline. A sufficiently large corporate bond market, with the ability to value risk and provide strong liquidity, would become an important medium- and long-term channel for capital, giving businesses more options for raising funds, easing pressure on bank credit and mobilizing additional resources for development investment. This is not only a requirement for the financial market, but is increasingly an important condition for Vietnam to achieve its double-digit growth target in the coming period.

Source: Khanh An, Minh Hue

Photo: Photo by The Investor/Khanh An