Vinhomes attracts $1.3 billion from foreign fund before listing shares

Vingroup said that GIC Private Limited has just signed a share purchase contract and provided a debt instrument for Vinhomes. The total value of these investments amounts to $1.3 billion, equivalent to about VND29,500 billion.

Vinhomes is the developer of villas and apartments in Vietnam’s major cities. It belongs to Vingroup and operates under the brands of Vinhomes and VinCity.

The company has the charter capital of about $1,18 billion and has submitted its stock listing application on HOSE since early April. Vinhomes will be Vingroup’s second subsidiary, after Vincom Retail, to list its share.

Vingroup refused to disclose the percentage of shares held by GIC in Vinhomes. Previously, stated in the announcement of amending business registration in February, Vingroup directly holds about 70% of its shares. The remaining 30% can be sold in its initial public offering (IPO) before the listing.

GIC is a familiar investor in Vietnam's recent large IPOs. Last year, this fund bought a 5% stake in Vietjet Air, a private airline owned by Vietnamese billionaire Nguyen Phuong Thao.

The investor is also thought to be involved in Techcombank's $900 million share offering. This bank plans to list on HOSE with a valuation of about $6 billion.

In 2016, GIC announced that it would buy more than 7% of Vietcombank's shares, but the deal has not been finalised yet. Recently, a representative of Vietcombank told Nikkei Asia that this deal is being restarted.

Besides, GIC also holds shares of Masan Group, FPT, Vinamilk, Pan Group, etc. with the total investment value of about $659,8 million.

Apart from GIC, Temasek Holdings, another investment fund under the Singaporean government, has also been investing heavily in Vietnam. This fund used to put a significant amount of capital into Hoang Anh Gia Lai and Minh Phu Seafood.