Vietnam police probe possible stock market manipulation, say documents

HANOI, Feb 13 (Reuters): Vietnam's police are investigating transactions made by foreign investors concerning listed domestic lender Eximbank in the first weeks of this year as they suspect its share value was manipulated, according to documents and sources.

The investigation, which is preliminary and may not ascertain any wrongdoing, comes amid an anti-corruption crackdown that led to the resignation in January of Vietnam's President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

According to one of two internal documents reviewed by Reuters, the police are seeking information by Feb. 20 from Viet Capital Securities, a broker, about transactions concerning Eximbank shares made by Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited, a fund controlled by Dragon Capital, which is the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam's stock market.

A second document, dated Feb. 9, asked a second broker to provide information about another two funds managed by Dragon Capital.

Dragon Capital, an asset manager focused on Vietnam and Southeast Asia, said that it was aware its brokers have been contacted by the authorities and that it supported the probe, stressing that it was not under investigation.

"We have not ourselves been contacted by the SSC (State Securities Commission) nor any other authority, nor is there any suggestion whatever that we are under investigation," it said in a statement. "We will fully support any investigation if asked."

Two people familiar with the probe said that similar documents had been sent to a few more brokers about other transactions concerning Eximbank.

Eximbank's shares have dropped 18% since the start of the year.

The authorities are trying to establish whether in the early weeks of this year the share price was artificially driven down.

Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited fund is one of the biggest in Vietnam, with a net asset value of $1.7 billion and significant holdings in major domestic banks and real estate companies. (Reporting by Phuong Nguyen and Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; editing by Jason Neely and Tomasz Janowski) - Reuters