Monthly Update

RNS Number : 4135L

Vietnam Enterprise Investments Ltd

13 May 2022

 

13 May 2022

Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited

("VEIL" or "the Company")

Monthly Update

-5.9% NAV Return in April 2022

Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited ("VEIL") is a closed-end fund investing primarily in listed equity in Vietnam, and a FTSE 250 constituent. The Company's NAV performance for April 2022 is set out in this notice.

VEIL Performance  

•	As of 30 April, VEIL's NAV decreased -5.9% over the previous month against a fall of -8.9% for its reference index, the Vietnam Index, both in US dollar terms.
•	The Company's NAV per share was US$11.54 as of 30 April, and its total NAV was US$2.4 billion (£1.9 billion).
•	VEIL's NAV per share performance was -5.6% over three months, +12.7% over one year and +73.3% in three years, over these time periods the performance of the Vietnam Index was -8.7%, +12.0% and +48.4%, respectively.
•	The Company's share price decreased by -5.5% in April 2022, and its discount to NAV as of 30 April was 18.7%, compared with 19.5% at the end of March.
•	The Company repurchased 875,517 shares in April, to be held in treasury, compared with 1,108,150 shares repurchased in March. As of 30 April, 1.7% of issued shares have been repurchased since 1 January 2022.

  Dien Huu Vu, the Portfolio Manager of VEIL commented:

"In April, despite some impressive Q1 2022 results announcements (which exceeded the Investment Manager's forecasts) Vietnam's markets responded to both global pressures and domestic events. From near all-time highs on 4 April, the market dropped 12% at market close on 25 April, before staging a recovery and ending the month down 8.9%. External concerns such as the anticipated US Fed rate hike, China's lockdown of Shanghai, potential supply-chain disruption from China's zero-COVID policy, and the risk of stagflation weighed on the market. On the domestic front, sentiment was impacted by the arrest of the Chairman of a small securities brokerage (following two arrests of the Chairmen of two property firms as reported the previous month), with margin calls also affecting the market.

Due to pressures from the US Fed's rate hikes and the devaluation of the renminbi, the Vietnamese dong has depreciated -0.9% year-to-date. However, we still believe that the outlook for the Vietnamese dong remains solid, based on considerable US dollar inflows, a robust external account position, and importantly, the return of tourism after Vietnam's borders reopened mid-March. The State Bank of Vietnam can also use its foreign exchange reserves, which have increased tenfold over the past decade to US$110bn, to stabilise the exchange rate, if needed. Meanwhile, inflation has shown evidence of spillover effects from petroleum to other categories, resulting in a modest CPI increase of 2.6% year-on-year in April, prompting the State Bank of Vietnam to sustain the exchange rate to prevent imported inflation."

  Economic Overview

· Disbursed Foreign Direct Investment ('FDI') reached US$5.9bn, +7.6% year-on-year and at a record level for the first four months of the year.

· The YTD trade surplus reached US$2.5bn at the end of April, compared with US$1.1bn surplus at this stage in 2021.

· Exports and imports were US$122.5bn and US$120bn YTD at the end of April, +16.4% and +17.5% year-on-year, respectively.

· The Vietnamese dong depreciated 0.6% against the US dollar in April, significantly less than the US dollar index which moved c.5% for the month.

· YTD the Vietnamese dong has depreciated 0.9% against the US dollar as at the end of April 2022.

· The currency is being supported by high levels of FDI and US dollar inflows from the large trade surplus.

· Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest city, registered less than 100 daily COVID-19 cases by the end of April, a big improvement from around 1,000 daily cases the previous month.

· Vietnam's Manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) remained at 51.7 in April as the manufacturing sector expanded for the seventh consecutive month.

April Commentary

Despite strong first quarter earnings reported in the banking sector there was still a general decline in line with the market. Asia Commercial Bank and Vietcombank had relatively better performances than the sector and the Vietnam Index, the Investment Manager believes this is because these banks are widely considered as being more conservative with strong risk management and so are usually favoured in times of volatility and uncertainty.

VEIL's two biggest laggards for April were both property companies as sentiment deteriorated indiscriminately following the recent arrests of business leaders in this sector. The Investment Manager believes that given Vinhomes and Dat Xanh Group's strategically located landbanks and quality of their projects, combined with the key sector drivers of urbanisation and the rising middle class, that these two companies remain primed for solid growth when investors start to look past these incidents and sentiment normalises.

Mobile World Group's ("MWG") AGM boosted positive investor sentiment and reaffirmed the retailer's ambitious growth path in the coming years. MWG aims to continue growing its mobile phone and consumer electronic segments as well as bringing the grocery store segment to profitability. MWG management also shared its plan to start scaling up its pharmaceutical retail chain, which now has 211 stores and saw a 3.7x increase in sales from Q1 2021. Overall MWG had 5,497 stores at the end of the first quarter, and the company's Q1 2022 numbers showed revenue of US$1.6bn and net profit of US$63m, +18.3% and +8.2% year-on-year, respectively. Online sales in Q1 2022 were up 138% year-on-year at US$258m. For the full year, MWG maintains its ambitious plan of revenue and net profit growth of 14% and 30% year-on-year, respectively.

Top Ten Holdings (67.5% of NAV)

	Company	Sector	Vietnam Index %	NAV %	Monthly Change %
1	Vietnam Prosperity Bank	Banks	3.1	12.2	-1.9
2	Mobile World Group	Retail	2.0	10.6	+1.7
3	Asia Commercial Bank	Banks	1.7	9.9	-1.6
4	Hoa Phat Group	Materials/Resources	3.6	8.8	-4.5
5	Vinhomes	Real Estate	5.3	5.4	-14.7
6	Dat Xanh Group	Real Estate	0.4	5.4	-21.9
7	FPT Corporation	Software/Services	1.8	4.3	-2.4
8	Vietcombank	Banks	7.2	3.9	-2.0
9	Techcombank	Banks	2.9	3.6	-11.7
10	Military Bank	Banks	2.1	3.3	-10.1

For further information, please contact:

Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited

Rachel Hill

Phone: [phone]

Mobile: [phone]

[e-mail]  

Jefferies International Limited

Stuart Klein 

Phone: [phone]

[e-mail]  

Buchanan

Charles Ryland / Henry Wilson / George Beale

Phone: [phone]

[e-mail]

LEI: 213800SYT3T4AGEVW864

 

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