Monthly Investor Report

RNS Number : 5757F

VietNam Holding Limited

10 March 2020

 

VietNam Holding Limited ("VNH" or the "Company")

Monthly Investor Report

A report detailing the activities of the Company for the month February 2020 has been issued by Dynam Capital Limited, the investment manager of the Company. Electronic copies of the report have been made available to shareholders on the Company's website  and a summary of the report is included below.

Investor Report Summary

February saw a slight narrowing in the continuing sell-off in equities as investors sought to discriminate some sectors despite an overall fear of the impact of COVID-19. The Fund's NAV per share declined by 3.5% during the month, below the Vietnam All Share Index which fell by 3%. Year-to-date the Fund is down by 8.9 percent. Our top holding FPT (13.7% NAV) rose by 5.9% and Dat Xanh Group (DXG, 4.3% NAV) gained 2.5%. Saigon Cargo Services (SCS, 5% NAV) fell 14.2% on concerns of disrupted supply chains and Hoa Phat Group (HPG, 4.8% NAV) fell 7.3%. Vietnam's control measures against COVID-19 bore some fruit, and the 16 people initially infected were all cleared and released by the end of the month. On Friday 6th March, however, a Vietnamese national returning to Hanoi from Europe was diagnosed as having COVID-19, and this created a further cluster of 15 new infections. That, coupled with fear in Europe as Italy quarantined 16 million people and with significant volatility in commodity and equity prices globally, has depressed domestic investor sentiment.

On a brighter note, February saw the ratification by the EU of a Free Trade Agreement, Vietnam's 17th, a further validation of the country's willingness to trade with the world (already at 200% of GDP). Trade for the first two months of 2020 is up, albeit with a modest trade deficit.

The mid-term prospects for Vietnam remain strong, as it continues to attract investment from other parts of Asia as a manufacturing diversification strategy - 'China-plus-one'. South Korean manufacturers have been moving more production to Vietnam, and also announcing plans to invest in more R&D centres, a positive sign for Vietnam's growing technology and engineering sectors.

The Fund is positioned to benefit from the trend of consumerism, and modernization of the economy. This year we have been adding to some banking positions, which are looking cheap, and this has raised the average market capitalization to $440m. Recently, Military Bank (MBB, 7% NAV) raised $99m in a private placement of 64.3m new shares and 21.4m treasury shares to foreign institutional investors. Other than in these approved issuances, foreign investors would have to pay around 25% premium to its listed price to acquire MBB, which is at its Foreign Ownership Limited (FOL). During the month two new indices were created, to accommodate two domestic ETFs, one focused on the banking sector, and one on FOL stocks. We expect the eventual flows into these two ETFs to provide some positive lift to several stocks in our portfolio, which at 9.7x Price-to-Earnings is looking cheap.

The Investment Manager will be in the UK and Europe from 24-31st March - do contact us to arrange a meeting.

For more information please contact:

Dynam Capital Limited  

Craig Martin  Tel: [phone]

[e-mail] | www.dynamcapital.com

www.vietnamholding.com

finnCap

Nominated Adviser and Corporate Broker       Tel: [phone] 

William Marle / Giles Rolls

 

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