The Vietnamese Corporate Bond Market An Early Exploration into the 1992-1999 Period

This paper summarizes the situation of corporate bonds in Vietnam for the period 1992-1999. Corporate bonds are new in the transitional economy, but the capital shortage and operational inefficiency of the banking sector and financial system would likely drive the bond market up in the future. The paper also discusses some conditions for the Vietnamese bond market to further develop, based on the facts and observation.

Corporate Bond Market in the Transition Economy of Vietnam, 1990-2010

Corporate bond appeared early in 1992-1994 in Vietnamese capital markets. However, it is still not popular to both business sector and academic circle. This paper explores different dimensions of Vietnamese corporate bond market using a unique, and perhaps, most complete dataset. State not only intervenes in the bond markets with its powerful budget and policies but also competes directly with enterprises. The dominance of SOEs and large corporations also prevents SMEs from this debt financing vehicle. Whenever a convertible term is available, bondholders are more willing to accept lower fixed income payoff. But they would not likely stick to it. On one hand, prospective bondholders could value the holdings of equity when realized favorably ex ante. On the other hand, the applicable coupon rate for such bond could turn out negative inflationadjusted payoff when tight monetary policy is exercised and the corresponding equity holding turns out valueless, ex post. Given the weak primary market and virtually nonexistent secondary market, the corporate bond market in Vietnam reflects our perception of the relationship-based and rent-seeking behavior in the financial markets. For the corporate bonds to really work, they critically need a higher level of liquidity to become truly tradable financial assets.

Comparison of the thermodynamics and base-pair dynamics of a full LNA:DNA duplex and of the isosequential DNA:DNA duplex

Locked nucleic acids (LNA), conformationally restricted nucleotide analogues, are known to enhance pairing stability and selectivity toward complementary strands. With the aim to contribute to a better understanding of the origin of these effects, the structure, thermal stability, hybridization thermodynamics, and base-pair dynamics of a full-LNA:DNA heteroduplex and of its isosequential DNA:DNA homoduplex were monitored and compared. CD measurements highlight differences in the duplex structures: the homoduplex and heteroduplex present B-type and A-type helical conformations, respectively. The pairing of the hybrid duplex is characterized, at all temperatures monitored (between 15 and 37 degrees C), by a larger stability constant but a less favorable enthalpic term. A major contribution to this thermodynamic profile emanates from the presence of a hairpin structure in the LNA single strand which contributes favorably to the entropy of interaction but leads to an enthalpy penalty upon duplex formation. The base-pair opening dynamics of both systems was monitored by NMR spectroscopy via imino protons exchange measurements. The measurements highlight that hybrid G-C base-pairs present a longer base-pair lifetime and higher stability than natural G-C base-pairs, but that an LNA substitution in an A-T base-pair does not have a favorable effect on the stability. The thermodynamic and dynamic data confirm a more favorable stacking of the bases in the hybrid duplex. This study emphasizes the complementarities between dynamic and thermodynamical studies for the elucidation of the relevant factors in binding events.