Vietnam is likely to see a boom in foreign portfolio investment this year as several funds are in the process of raising capital for their investment and four more foreign funds are set to operate in the country, state media reported.
Irish-listed PXP Vietnam Fund will issue an additional 3,436,000 shares this month to further invest in the Southeast Asia country, said Kevin Snowball, director of PXP Vietnam Asset Management that runs the fund.
The fund had capital of US$25.8 million at the end of last month, of which 93 per cent had been invested in 23 local firms.
Mekong Capital, meanwhile, plans to start operating a new fund of US$40 million next month, managing director Chris Freund said, adding that an official launch was slated for May.
He said the new fund would have a very similar strategy to his current US$18.5 million Mekong Enterprise Fund, which focuses mainly on private enterprises in the country.
Some four new foreign funds are expected to start operations in Vietnam this month, said Tran Thanh Tan, general director of VietFund Management that now runs the first local listed fund VF1.
Tan revealed at his fund’s annual meeting on Tuesday that the four newcomers included a US$50 million Swiss fund, a US$20 Czech fund and one from Japan.
For its fund, VietFund Management, a joint venture between the Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (Sacombank) and UK-based Dragon Capital, will pool more capital to scale up VF1 to VND500 billion, some USUS$31.6 million, from the current VND300 billion.
Another joint-venture fund manager, BIDV-Vietnam Partners, is slated to launch its first fund of about VND1 trillion by the end of this month or early next month.
The venture was founded in January by the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and the U.S.-owned investment and consulting firm Vietnam Partners LLC.
The fact that more funds are seeking to invest in the country has given an upbeat sentiment to the local market, both listed and over-the-counter, analysts said.
The VN-Index has now exceeded the 400-point mark. In yesterday’s session, the index gained 10.92 points to reach a five-year high at 412.82. The VN-Index impressively increased by more than 100 points, or 34 per cent, during the last two months.
Individual investors are rushing to securities firms to open accounts to trade shares.
Many of them have gotten rich thanks to a surge in prices of unlisted bank shares and they now believe they can earn a lot from investing in the listed market, brokers said.
At the Ho Chi Minh City branch of Bao Viet Securities alone, the trading account balance has tripled to VND60 billion (US$3.8 million) over the past two months, branch director To Hai said, adding that most of the new accounts were opened by individuals.
Investment funds operating in Vietnam include BIDV-Vietnam Partners, VietFund Management, Thanh Viet Fund Management, Prudential Vietnam Fund Management and Manulife Vietnam Fund Management, Bao Viet Fund Management and Vietcapital Management.
Saigon Times Daily
Vietnamese
