Dragon Capital invests $83m in Vietnam’s housing developer Vinhomes

Robust investor appetite and soaring demand for quality housing in cities pushed Vinhomes to become the second most valuable listed firm in the Southeast Asian country as the property player made its stock market debut at a premium last month.

In VEIL’s portfolio, investment in Vinhomes ranks sixth in value, accounting for 5.11 per cent of the fund’s NAV, equivalent to $80 million. Vietnam’s Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) is the fund’s largest investment in value, contributing to 7.75 per cent of its NAV, equivalent to $121 million.

VEF, with total assets of $95.51 million as of May, invested another $3.2 million in Vinhomes. The investment in the housing development firm accounted for 3.35 per cent of the fund’s NAV and was its tenth largest investment.

Launched in 1995, London-listed VEIL is the longest running fund focused on Vietnam. It invests primarily in listed and pre-IPO companies in Vietnam that offer attractive growth and value metrics, and strong corporate governance.

Established in 1994, Dragon Capital-managed VEF is one of the biggest foreign investors in the Vietnamese stock market. It seeks medium- to long-term capital appreciation through investment primarily in equities issued by public companies operating in Vietnam.

Dragon Capital has also purchased one million shares of Viet Capital Securities (VCSC), raising its ownership to 9.06 per cent of the latter’s chartered capital, according to a stock exchange disclosure.

The investment firm spent about VND85.2 billion ($3.7 million) to increase its ownership in VCSC. It also sold 350,000 shares of Military Bank (MBBank), reducing its ownership in the bank from 6.01 per cent to 5.99 per cent.