Wealthy Asian investors hunt for Vietnamese stocks

The auction of Vinamilk shares, the most expected in 2017, was organized some days ago. A foreign investor paid US$400 million (VND9 trillion) to buy 48.33 million shares, or 3.33% of charter capital.

On the same day, foreign investors spent VND1.5 trillion to buy 8.6 million Vinamilk on the bourse at the price of VND173,800 per share, the ceiling price level of that day. 

Platinum Victory PTE, belonging to Jardine Cycle & Carriage, the leading Singaporean automobile distributor in South East Asia, is a big investor in Vinamilk, according to Nikkei. The investor bought a 5.53% of Vinamilk stake in total, from both SCIC at the auction and on the bourse, worth US$616.6 million.

Some days ago, the Vietnamese stock market witnessed an unprecedented transaction where hundreds of millions of VRE shares of Vincom Retail, worth US$0.7 billion, were transferred to foreign investors within one trading session. 

The value of shares sold was very small compared with demand - US$2 billion, or three times higher than the offered value. The investors which bought shares included Avanda, Dragon Capital, Genesis, GIC Pte, HSBC, Karst Peak, Templeton Investments and TT International.

Analysts commented that the thirst for Vietnamese stocks began in 2016 when a series of share purchase deals were made by Asian investors. These included JX Nippon Oil & Energy which spent VND4 trillion to acquire an 8% Petrolimex stake.

Two foreign investment funds, the Hong Kong-based Magbi Fund Limited and Singapore-based Super Delta Pte Ltd, have spent VND2.4 trillion to buy a 40% stake of Traphaco, the largest Vietnamese pharmacy firm. 

Other pharmacy firms also have foreign investors: Domesco has Abbott, Hau Giang Pharmacy has Taisho Pharmaceutical, while Pymepharco has Stada Service Holding.

In the banking sector, Japanese Shinsei has acquired a 49% stake of Mcredit, a finance company. Another Japanese investor bought half of the finance company belonging to HD Bank.

Analysts said after the divestment from Vinamilk, SCIC would divest Vinaconex shares in 2017. Also, investors will have opportunities to buy into large plastics companies – Binh Minh and Tien Phong.

The information about the SCIC divestments has pushed up prices of the shares. BMP, NTP, VCG and DMC have increased by 3.5-6%.

Huynh Minh Tuan from VnDirect Securities commented that the demand is very high from foreign investors who will buy out all of the shares to be put on sale in the time to come.