Country has ambitious growth plan
Kathleen Gallagher, Investment Week, 20 September 2021 • 4 min read
While the UK is making plans to protect itself from another Covid crisis it is easy to forget that some nations are in the middle of fighting the deadly virus.
Vietnam is one such country. Up until the end of April it was a world leader in virus containment. However, since then a deadly fourth wave has caused significant disruption and markets have noticed.
All three investment trusts that cover Vietnam are trading on double-digit discounts, despite achieving hefty returns across one and five years, according to figures from Association of Investment Companies (AIC) and FE fundinfo…
Part of this performance is down to Vietnam’s strong growth prospects. In fact, despite the devastating fourth wave, the World Bank still expects GDP to expand by about 4.8% in 2021, thanks to a strong first half…
Does size matter?
An obvious difference between the trusts is size. VEIL is the largest at £1.8bn followed by VOF at £966.6m and then the significantly smaller VNH which is £101.7m…
VNH has indeed been the best performing in the sector, with its NAV up 46% year to date and 89% over one year.
Craig Martin, chair of the management group of VNH, Dynam Capital, said he sees the trust as “perfectly sized” as they can invest in companies across the cap spectrum…
Private ways
Another differentiating factor is the assets within the trusts.
VEIL and VNH invest exclusively or nearly exclusively in listed equities…
The ESG factor
As with any frontier market, ESG factors can be a challenge for Vietnamese investors.
Jayna Rayna, investment company analyst at QuotedData, said it is VNH’s approach to ESG that makes it “the most differentiated” of the three trusts…
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