Vietnam's M&A market shows sign of recovery

At the beginning of June, Warburg Pincus spearheaded a $250 million investment in Novaland, which is developing a pipeline of projects in Vietnam. This latest commitment brings Warburg Pincus’ investments in Vietnam to $1.5 billion over nearly a decade and comes just six months after the New York-based firm closed its first-ever strategy for the Asian real estate sector with $2.8 billion in fresh equity.

Meanwhile, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC has just madean additional investment in Vinhomes. GIC has just announced to buy 612,000 shares of Vinhomes on June 1. This transaction helped the foreign fund increase its ownership to more than 218.2 million shares, equivalent to 5.01 per cent. After the transaction, GIC has officially become the second-largest shareholder of Vinhomes following Vingroup.

Besides foreign players, local businesses have actively ramped up their M&A activities. Vietnamese fintech firm Finhay has recently acquired securities firm Vina Securities. Finhay now owns more than 34.6 million shares of Vina Securities, equivalent to 96.62 per cent of charter capital. The move helps the fintech firm to expand its ecosystem of micro-investment and financial services

Meanwhile, Vietnamese agriculture and food group PAN Group is expected to acquire more agricultural and fishery companies. This week,PAN Group's board of directors has approved a plan to issue shares in order to increase share capital from equity sources and to provide additional shares to existing shareholders.

The company will issue almost 83.6 million shares and offer to sell over 104.4 million shares to collect over $64,600. The company plans to allocate $35.9 million to increase its ownership in member companies like Vietnam Fumigation and Vinaseed. PAN will make a full takeover of Aquatex Ben Tre.

According to data from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in the first five months of the year, Vietnam recorded 1,340 capital contributions and share purchases in Vietnamese enterprises by foreign investors, totalling over $1.98 billion, up 51.6 per cent from the same period in the previous year