Sarah Arkle, chair of Vietnam Enterprise Investments (VEIL), has stepped down a day after its heavily oversubscribed 10% tender offer.
Arkle, a former Threadneedle fund manager who joined the VEIL board four years ago and became chair in June 2024, announced her immediate departure yesterday having informed the market on Tuesday that holders of 68% of shares in the £1.3bn investment company had applied to sell their shares.
Arkle, a former non-executive director of F&C (FCIT) and JPMorgan Emerging Markets Growth & Income (JMGI) trusts,said: “I am delighted with the positive response to the tender offer and, following the significant time commitment over the last six months, I feel it is time to hand over to the new generation of directors to take VEIL forward.”
At the company’s annual general meeting last June investors holding 41% of the shares voted in favour of winding up the nine-year-old fund. Following a shareholder consultation, the board said in December it would launch three 10% tender offers over the next 12 months to tackle what it recognised had been an “unacceptably wide” 20% share price discount to net asset value.
The high level of demand for the first tender offer doesn’t alter the number of shares, 16.1m, that the company bought back and cancelled yesterday.
Shares in the listed closed-end fund managed by Dragon Capital have shot up 41% in the past year but over five years have generated a total return of 36.7%, below the much stronger performance of its two rivals Vietnam Holding (VNH) and VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity (VOF). They stand on an 11.6% discount to net asset value (NAV).
Charles Cade, the former head of investment companies research at Numis Securities who is VEIL’s senior independent director, will become interim chair while a permanent successor is found. Cade also chairs the board of Temple Bar (TMPL) investment trust.
Cade thanked Arkle and highlighted her role in leading the shareholder consultation following the result of the continuation vote at the AGM. “The measures implemented have resulted in a significant narrowing of VEIL’s discount to NAV and leave the company well positioned to benefit from the exciting growth story in Vietnam.”
