Investors

The Ho Tram Grand Strip resort in the southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province was sold in April to a unit of U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus. The U.S. firm bought a 62.8 percent stake in Canada’s Asian Coast Development, which owned the $4.2 billion development comprising hundreds of rooms and a casino. In Hanoi, Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya Group sold a 75 percent stake in the Intercontinental hotel near the West Lake in March to local firm Hanoi Hotel Tourism Development Co., Ltd for $53.4 million. Foreign investors are showing interest in Vietnam, making it one of the most talked-about markets in the Asia Pacific, as prices of hotels in the country are higher than their expectations, said Vo Quoc Phuong Trang, vice president real estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Hotels & Hospitality Asia Pacific. Vietnamese investors on the other hand prefer building new hotels and resorts, she added. "Domestic investors’ interest in hotel investments has been … [Read more...] about Hotel sector proves irresistible to investors

These institutions focus mostly on settling their own debt and do not engage much in trading, so the overall process is slow and length in Vietnam, said Dr. Can Van Luc, Chief Economist at BIDV, Vietnam’s biggest state-owned bank, at a conference Friday. The country currently only allows two state-owned firms to trade debt: the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC), and the Vietnam Debt and Asset Trading Corporation (DATC); in addition to banks. Vietnam  should open up its debt market to a diverse range of investors as they do in other countries like the U.S., South Korea, China, and Thailand, where the market includes a diverse range of players ranging from investment banks, investment funds, insurance companies, and pension funds to individual investors and professional valuation companies, he said. Vietnam’s market, on the other hand, lacks brokers, professional consultants, and independent asset valuators such as insurance or securities companies. Debt trading is … [Read more...] about Vietnam should open up debt-trading market to private investors: experts

The amount of shares was part of the total 164 million shares sold by Standard Chartered APR Ltd and Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd.  Besides the two funds belonging to Alp Asia Finance, three other funds also bought ACB shares, namely Estes Investments Limited (38.5 million shares), Boardwalk South Limited (154,100 shares) and Estes Investments Limited (12.7 million). Prior to that, in March, Dragon Capital Markets Ltd divested all of its 7 million ACB shares (0.71%), while Dragon Financial Holdings Ltd bought a similar amount of shares, raising its total shares owned to 70 million (7.1%). As for Techcombank, after breaking apart with HSBC, it found two investors, managed by Warburg Pincus, which committed to pour US$370 million, or VND8.4 trillion into the bank. In December 2017, PYN Elite Fund spent US$40 million to acquire 4.999% of TP Bank shares.IFC of the World Bank has also become a shareholder of TP Bank with 4.9% of shares. TP Bank’s chair Do Minh Phu said … [Read more...] about Foreign investors eye bank shares

While Japanese contractors are absent, many Chinese enterprises have registered to attend the bids for eight component projects of the north-south rail expressway project. Sixty dossiers registering to attend the bids to implement the component projects have been submitted for shortlisting, according to the Ministry of Transport’s (MOT) Project Management Unit. According to Nguyen Danh Huy from PPP Department of MOT, Vietnam is a member of WTO, and according to its rules, all member countries must not be subjected to discriminatory treatment.  The investors, joining forces with Vietnamese enterprises, want to implement the Nghi Son – Dien Chau, Dien Chau – Bai Vot, Nha Trang – Cam Lam, Cam Lam – Vinh Hao, Vinh Hao – Phan Thiet and Phan Thiet – Dau Giay projects. Linh Ha North-south express railway: how much money is enough? Experts say the north-south expressway project worth tens of billions of dollars raises big questions … [Read more...] about North-south expressway: Chinese contractors account for majority

According to Mr. Hoang Minh Chien, deputy head of the Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, processed agricultural products of Vietnam have entered 180 countries and territories in the world, even choosy markets, such as the US, Japan, South Korea and the EU. Of which, 50 markets are considered as traditional markets with export turnover growth always maintaining at a two-digit number. Vietnam has built industrial agro-forestry-aquatic processing system with processing capacity of 120 million tons of materials per year, consisting of more than 7,500 enterprises attached with export scale. However, it is acknowledged that Vietnam still mainly exports raw materials. Explaining about this issue, Ms. Ly Kim Chi, chairwoman of the Food and Foodstuff Association of Ho Chi Minh City, said that domestic processing facilities and enterprises were limited in investment capital so upgrading production technology was slow and failed to meet technical and quality … [Read more...] about Food processing industry attractive to FDI enterprises