Fund managers said the inflow of foreign indirect investment into Vietnam has been affected by the global economic crisis, but a recovery is expected soon.
“There has been a huge slowdown in foreign capital coming to Vietnam in the last nine months,” said Bradley Lalonde, general director of Hanoi-based BIDV-Vietnam Partners Investment Management Joint Venture Co.
Despite the private sector’s need for capital to grow and expand, investors and fund managers find difficult to raise capital this time after losing lots of money during the gloomy market, Lalonde said at “Alternative Investment Vietnam 2009”, a two-day conference on portfolio investment in HCM City last week.
“We are seeing a huge slowdown in privatization. We have seen very limited private-equity opportunities, merge and acquisition, and buyout opportunities,” he noted.
Prudential Vietnam Fund Management Co. said the total foreign indirect investment into Vietnam as of April had shrunk to US$3.5 billion from US$4 billion at the end of 2008 and much lower than peak of US$6 billion at the end of 2007.
However, Lalonde and many other fund managers expressed their optimism about investment chances in Vietnam, and expect the inflow of foreign capital into the country to increase in the next six months and become robust again in the next two years.
As bank credit remains tight, unlisted companies alone may need as much as US$2 billion from investment funds, they said.
New foreign investment funds have also started business in Vietnam showing interest in opportunities here.
“Despite the turmoil in the market, Vietnam is doing a good job in managing the crisis. Vietnam still has nice growth and it is among few countries that are actually growing,” Lalonde said.
Vietnam could achieve the GDP growth of 4.5 per cent this year, better than most Asian economies despite the global downturn, the Asia Development Bank said. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung affirmed that Vietnam’s economy will expand between 5 per cent and 5.5 per cent this year. (Young People)
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