VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese investors still cannot reap fruits from real estate projects in foreign markets.

HAGL Group's hotel in Myanmar

Vietnamese outward investment reached its peak in 2008-2009, when banks rushed to open foreign branches overseas and Hoang Anh Gia Lai group began developing hydropower, agriculture and real estate projects in Laos and Cambodia.

At that time, Saigontourist, a travel firm, nurtured the plan to buy a 5-star hotel in San Francisco, while HUD, a housing and urban area development firm, announced the plan to build a 36-hole golf course, tourism site, houses and 5-star hotel with 800 rooms in Cuba.  

In 2009, Thuduc House teamed up with two US partners to set up Thuduc House Property Ventures LLC, aiming to build high-end houses for sale and lease. Thuduc House was the first Vietnamese company which asked for permission to trade properties in the US.

After registering hydropower, agriculture and real estate projects in Laos, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group in late 2015 began exploiting the Myanmar market when putting the first phase of the HAGL Myanmar Center, capitalized at $440 million, into operation. 

The complex comprises a shopping mall and two A-class 27-story office buildings, covering the total area of 192,000 square meters. 

Later, in July 2016, Hoang Anh Gia Lai opened Melia Yangon, a 5-star hotel with 400 rooms.

By February 2016, more than 90 percent of the shopping mall area, and 60 percent of office area had been occupied. Meanwhile, over 30 percent of apartments to be built in the second phase of the project had been booked.

Analysts commented that Vietnamese real estate developers were still taking cautious steps in foreign markets, preferring not to take a risk of pumping capital into many different projects at the same time.

Sources said Saigontourist has canceled the plan to buy the 5-star hotel in the US because of complicated procedures on investment and capital transfer abroad, while the price negotiations don’t bring desired results. 

Similarly, there has been no further information about HUD’s investment plan in Cuba.

Tin Nghia Corporation, before launching an IPO in May 2016, decided to divest from a series of ineffective investment projects, one of which was a hotel in Champasak in Laos.

The 2015 financial report of Thuduc House showed that the company had invested $3 million in the US and gained an average profitability rate of 4 percent.

To date, six out of 10 houses have been sold, while $1.2 million had been transferred to Vietnam by the end of 2015. 

Thuduc House plans to sell the other four houses and transfer the profits home. However, the expenses for house sales in the US are high.

Kim Chi