In Vietnam, Too, Firms Whose CEOs Are Women Fare Better - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Just as in many Western countries, a check of Vietnamese companies shows that those run by women do better than those run by men.

• For a bit over two years through mid-January 2009, Mekong Capital found that shares of publicly traded companies with female CEOs fell 17.1%. That isn’t really what you want to see in your portfolio, but it handily beat the 38.8% drop by companies with male chief executives.

• Because only 7.5% of companies in Vietnam are run by women (though they make up 18.3% of the domestic market capitalization, which was how the study was weighted), the overall market fell 34.9%.

• Mekong Capital Managing Director Chris Freund said, “While the period of this study is too short to draw any meaningful conclusions about long-term performance, the results are consistent with our anecdotal observations, which we’ve made since the mid 1990s. Many of the best companies in the country are led by female CEOs.”

• Indeed, before the economic downturn turned into full-blown crisis, firms run by women not only handily beat those run by men, but stayed positive. Through April 10, 2008, with the overall market already down by 16.3%, companies run by women were ahead by 8.9% while those run by men precipitated the losses by falling 20.4%.

• Similar studies in Western countries have also shown that companies run by women tend to produce better returns for investors than those run by men, though the data are not consistent and different mixes and ratios of women in different roles can affect the results country to country.

Mekong Capital announces its analysis

Chris Freund’s blog