On its fifth anniversary since listing in London, Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited (LON:VEIL) pointed out that it outperformed the local benchmark and peers in the first half of the year as well as over one, three, five and 10 years.
Over the past five years since floating on the London Stock Exchange, the investment trust’s net asset value (NAV) return has annualised at 23.2%, a cumulative 50% outperformance of the VN index over the period.
The trust, which was launched over 25 years ago and was traded in Dublin until the LSE move, was the first-ever Vietnamese closed-ended fund.
“We have enjoyed an excellent H1 outperforming the VN Index benchmark and our peers,” said portfolio manager Vu Huu Dien at the trust’s manager Dragon Capital.
“The outlook for Vietnam remains positive, especially as it has been able to minimise the impact of Covid-19 compared to other Asian countries well. The market is likely to benefit from low rates and infrastructure spending for the foreseeable future and within VEIL we are tapping into this with a concentration in the interlocked sectors of banks, property, and steel, where value/growth opportunities abound.”
He said strong performance has largely been driven by steel specialist Hoa Phat Group, tech and telecoms conglomerate FPT Corp, and the commercial bank holdings in the portfolio, VPBank, Asia Commercial Bank and Techcombank.
Retail and technology are other sectors where Vu said the team sees value as well as growth.
“We are also especially proud of the continued developments we have made to expand VEIL’s ESG programme and integration over the last five years,” Vu added.
“As a long-term investor committed to sustainability, all investments made by VEIL are subjected to a rigorous ESG screening process adopted by the Dragon Capital Group. We have also gone to regulators with a call for mandatory disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions for public companies. In general Vietnam’s adoption of ESG is lagging compared to other markets but it is heading in the right direction and there is an important role for investors to play in pushing for higher standards.”
Since moving its listing to London, the company’s NAV has increased from roughly US$890mln in 2016 to US$2.55bn as at 30 June, with the average daily traded value of VEIL shares topping US$1mln.