Dragon Capital’s Vietnam Equity Ucits, which is being overseen by an all-female board, seeks medium to long term capital appreciation through investing primarily in securities issued by Vietnamese companies that are traded on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.
Blue chip companies listed on the exchange include steel producers, healthcare, food and beverage, oil and gas and property businesses.
It has been reported that the US dollar-denominated fund aims to “at least beat the Ho Chi Minh stock index”, according to Dragon’s chief investment officer Bill Stoops.
The fund, which comes with a one-off entry charge of 5% and a management charge of 2.4% pa, is open to anyone wishing to invest at least US$25,000 over a period of between at least three and five years.
In its investor information pack, Dragon states that the Fund will be ‘actively managed using a disciplined approach referencing an in-house model portfolio developed by the Investment Manager’.
The fund is being managed under DC Developing Market Strategies, an umbrella investment company set up by Dragon in May this year with capital coming from the Bank of Ireland.
The fund, which opened on 2 September and is on offer until 27 September, is overseen by an all-female board comprising of Máire O’Connor – also a director of alternative asset manager Brookfield Investment Funds; Bronwyn Wright – a director at Old Mutual Global Investors and Rachel Hill.
Dragon Capital is one of the largest asset managers in South East Asia. As of December 2012, it managed around US$1.1bn assets. It has offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, the UK, Bangkok and Hong Kong.
As reported earlier this month, Asia Frontier Capital is one of a number of companies looking to invest in Vietnam and other fast-growing asian markets of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka.
