Information on The Investor (South Korea) mentioned that Mirae Asset Global Investments, Member of Mirae Asset Financial Group (South Korea) will acquire 100 percent stake of Trust Principle Fund Joint Stock Company (TPF). After that, 30 percent of the stake will be sold to the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) to set up a joint venture in Vietnam.
According to Mirae Asset’s Chair Park Hyeon-joo, this joint venture will be Mirae’s base in Southeast Asia. According to the plan, in addition to traditional investments in companies in Vietnam and the region, Mirae will launch new funds in Vietnam, at the same time diversifying the investment portfolio to other fields such as real estate, infrastructure and private investment.
In fact, Mirae Asset Global Investments has been in Vietnam for 12 years to invest and buy shares of domestic companies. Not long ago, Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Korea Investment Partners (KIP) poured capital in Appota a Vietnamese technology startup pioneering in the field of building technology platforms for mobile phones in Vietnam. This investment was 10 million USD in value.
Meanwhile, according to recent information, Lotte Group (South Korea), via its subsidiary Lotte Card Company Limited, has completed procedures to receive the transfer of all Techcombank’s contributed capital at Techcom Finance Company Limited (Techcom Finance). Through this deal, Lotte Card has officially become the first South Korean credit card company licensed in Vietnam.
Detailed information is not disclosed, but according to South Korean media, this deal is valued at tens of billion won (one billion won is equivalent to nearly 20 billion dong).
Thus, only on the first days of the Year of Dog, information about two new investment deals of foreign investors in Vietnam’s financial sector has been released. This move once again confirms the new trend of foreign investors in Vietnam’s market at the present time.
In fact, in recent years, more and more foreign investors have been targeting Vietnam’s financial sector, including fintech companies. Fintech is even a hot spot that attracts investments of foreign investors.
The investment of Mirae Asset Venture Investment and KIP in Appota can be considered a typical example. Not to mention, Standard Chartered Private Equity and Goldman Sachs Global Investment Bank in 2016 also made an investment worth 28 million USD in M_Service the owner of Momo e-wallet.
Vietnamese fintech startup community has also witnessed other large capital investments by foreign investments, such as the investment worth 12.73 million USD of Champion Crest under Credit China Fintech Holdings Limited a Hong Kong-based integrated financial service provider, to acquire a large number of shares of Amigo Technologies Joint Stock Company (Amigo).
In July 2017, Samsung Securities Company also announced the cooperation with Caldera Pacific a private investment fund in Hong Kong to buy 40 percent shares of Dragon Capital, in which Samsung Securities will hold 10 percent stake. This investment of Samsung Securities is considered “up-to-date” to help the company quickly catch up with its rivals.
According to Pham Hong Hai, general director of HSBC Vietnam, foreign investors are very optimistic about the economic prospects of Vietnam and are promoting the expansion of business and production in the market. Thus, banking and finance sector will also receive positive effects from that trend. “When business activities and the economy grows, demand for finance and banking services will increase, creating great opportunities for the development of the banking sector in both quantity and quality”, said Hai.
This is also the opportunity for foreign capital to continue being poured in this sector.
