Outperformance of listed companies with female CEOs in Vietnam

Mekong Capital recently conducted a research project on the profile of publicly listed companies that outperformed within Vietnam’s stock markets in the period commencing on 1 January 2007 and ending 10 April 2008. Mekong Capital found some particularly interesting findings relating to the gender of the CEOs. While 9% of listed companies in Vietnam have female CEOs, 27% of Vietnam’s market capitalization is represented by companies with female CEOs.

Over the period of Mekong Capital’s study, companies with female CEOs delivered an annualized return to shareholders of +8.9% while companies with male CEOs delivered an annualized return to shareholders of -20.4%. The average market return over this period was an annualized -16.3%.

Does this have any predictive value for the future? The period of this study is too short to draw any meaningful conclusions, but it confirms my anecdotal observations over the last 14 years - that many of the best companies in Vietnam are run by women.

(Please note that Mekong Capital's data is weighted by ending market capitalization, so the impact of the best performing companies will tend to be overstated relative to the impact of the worst performing companies.)