Foreign funds invest $650 mln in Vinhomes

By Dat Nguyen June 16, 2020 | 02:25 am PT

Vinhomes apartment buildings in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by Shutterstock/Saigoneer.

Two investment firms in the U.S. and Singapore have forked out VND15.1 trillion ($650 million) to acquire a 6 percent stake in Vingroup’s Vinhomes.

Vinhomes is the real estate arm of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup.

U.S.-based Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Singapore-based Temasek struck the deals Monday by purchasing 201 million shares of the real estate giant on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange at VND75,000 ($3.25) apiece, according to a release from Vingroup.

The deal sent trading volume on the exchange soaring to VND22.7 trillion ($979 million), the second highest mark in 20 years.

KKR said in a statement that it sees Vinhomes as a leading real estate platform with unparalleled execution capabilities, access to a sizeable land bank and significant growth opportunities in residential, commercial and industrial real estate.

The American firm has been active in Vietnam for about a decade now. It has invested $359 million in consumer goods maker Masan Consumer and another $250 million in meat producer Masan MeatLife.

Singapore state investor Temasek is a stakeholder in Vietnam gaming firm VNG. Another Singapore state investor, GIC, holds 6 percent of Vinhomes.

Vinhomes’s VHM shares prices rose 7 percent to VND74,900 ($3.25) Tuesday.

It was the most profitable listed company in Vietnam in the first quarter with VND10.1 trillion ($431 million) in pretax profit, up 200 percent year-on-year.