Vietnam’s leading fund manager, VinaCapital, has reiterated that the $50 million sale of its stake in Southeast Asia Telecommunication Holdings (SEATH) to a Malaysian investor is proceeding and will be completed before the end of the year.

“We are still on track to close the transaction in the near term and expect it to be no later than the end of December,” Mr. Tony Hsun, Managing Director of Infrastructure at VinaCapital, told VET on November 5.

Vietnam Infrastructure Limited (VNI), managed by VinaCapital, currently holds 100 per cent via a subsidiary in SEATH, which in turn holds 100 per cent of three mobile phone base station (BTS) owners in Vietnam.

Malaysia’s OCK Vietnam Towers Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of Malaysia’s OCK Group, has been negotiating with VNI to purchase the entire stake in SEATH and both sides planned to close the deal before the end of October.

But “since this is a transaction involving multiple levels of regulatory processes in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, it has taken longer than we initially anticipated,” Mr. Hsun said.

The OCK Group is reported to have ambitions to expand its operational scale and this acquisition paves the way for it to enter into Vietnam, which is one of the largest markets in ASEAN with many growth opportunities.

SEATH holds 100 per cent of three BTS owners in Vietnam: the VNC-55 Infrastructure JSC, the Mobile Information Service JSC, and the Global Infrastructure Investment JSC, which together constitute almost 70 per cent of VNI’s net asset value, which stood at $83.9 million as at September 30, 2016.

They own and lease 1,938 BTS and over 150 in-building systems (IBS) for mobile network operators in Vietnam. OCK Vietnam Towers will acquire the entire BTS business while VNI will separate the IBS portfolio from SEATH and divest at a later stage, according to VinaCapital.

The proceeds from the transaction will be used to make capital distributions to shareholders, it added. The Vietnamese fund plans to divest all assets under VNI by June 2017. The unit fund also holds the ownership of industrial park and township developer Long An Industrial Service and Residential.

Launched in July 2007, VNI is a mutual closed-end fund trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and focusing on infrastructure and infrastructure-related assets in Vietnam, such as in energy, transport, telecommunications, industrial parks and water/environmental utilities.

Source: VNI, VinaCapital, August 31, 2016

Mr. Hsun also insisted that VinaCapital does not expect any impact on VNI from the divestment in SEATH. In early October VinaCapital reported that it expects to establish a new fund, the Vietnam Special Access Fund (VSAF), in November, to invest in companies on Vietnam’s Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM).

VSAF will be a domestic fund for foreign investors with initial investment capital of $5 million and will be the second domestic fund on the market willing to consider investing in companies with less than $50 million in market capitalization.

Founded in 2003, VinaCapital is the country’s leading investment and asset management firm, with a diversified portfolio of $1.4 billion in assets under management (AUM). Its expertise spans a full range of asset classes, including capital markets, private equity, venture capital, real estate and fixed income.

It has three closed-ended funds trading on the London Stock Exchange (AIM): VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Limited, which trades on the Main Market, and VinaLand Limited and Vietnam Infrastructure Limited, which trade on the AIM.

VinaCapital also manages the Forum One - VCG Partners Vietnam Fund, Vietnam's largest open-ended Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS)-compliant fund. It also co-manages the DFJ VinaCapital L.P. technology venture capital fund with Draper Fisher Jurvetson and holds a stake in VinaWealth, a locally-incorporated fund management company.

VN Economic Times