Monthly Investor Report
Summary by AI BETAClose X
VietNam Holding Limited ("VNH" or the "Company")
Monthly Investor Report
A report detailing the activities of the Company for the month of August 2026 has been issued by Dynam Capital Limited, the investment manager of the Company. Electronic copies of the report have been made available to shareholders on the Company's website and a summary of the report is included below.
Manager Commentary: Back in the groove
Vietnam's stock market bounced back in August after July's sharp sell-off. The VN Index gained 5.6% during the month as strong corporate earnings and more attractive valuations brought buyers back into the market, with the approaching FTSE upgrade adding to investor interest. VNH net asset value rose 7.6%, ahead of the 6.6% gain in the Vietnam All Share Index. VNH achieved that outperformance despite having no exposure to VIC, which gained another 11.2% in August and now accounts for around 20% of the VN Index. Banks were among the strongest contributors, with Techcombank (TCB) up 16.4%, MB Bank (MBB) 13.9% and VPBank (VPB) 13.1%. Retail holdings also performed well, led by FPT Retail (FRT), up 18.3%, and Digiworld (DGW), up 16.3%, while Mobile World Group (MWG) also advanced. After several months when share prices and company performance often appeared disconnected, August saw some of that gap begin to close.
Vietnam's economic momentum continued through August. Exports increased 26% y-o-y, retail sales were up 14.9%, and manufacturing PMI strengthened to 53.3. Public investment disbursement reached US$21bn over the first eight months of the year as the government continued to push ahead with its ambitious infrastructure programme. Corporate earnings have been equally impressive: after growing 36.6% in the second quarter, market earnings are still expected to grow by around 20% for 2026 as a whole.
How that growth is financed is becoming increasingly important. Credit continues to expand considerably faster than deposits, putting pressure on liquidity and increasing competition for funding across the banking system. With credit demand remaining strong, we believe the next phase will increasingly favour banks able to secure and diversify their funding, protect margins and maintain asset quality as they grow. MBB, TCB and VPB are among the private banks well placed to navigate that environment. Together with VietinBank (CTG) and Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), banks now account for close to 40% of the VNH portfolio.
Vietnam's ambitious plans for infrastructure and investment will require huge amounts of capital, and the banks cannot be expected to finance the country's next stage of development alone. Deeper bond and equity markets will increasingly need to shoulder more of the financing burden, which makes the timing of Vietnam's promotion to the FTSE Russell Secondary Emerging Market status particularly pertinent. After years of anticipation, the upgrade takes effect on 21 September. It will not transform the market overnight, and further progress on market access, liquidity and foreign ownership will still be important. But it marks another significant step in the development of Vietnam's capital markets, following years of reforms to improve access for international investors, and will bring Vietnamese equities into major global emerging-market benchmarks.
Vietnam has produced some of Asia's strongest economic growth over many years, but international equity investors have not always captured that growth fully. Market access restrictions, index composition, dilution and valuation compression have all played a part. Several of those barriers are now gradually being dismantled, just as corporate earnings are growing strongly and valuations across much of the market remain attractive.
Stock picking and Investment discipline is still core to our approach. Earnings growth is a key driver of our decisions, alongside governance, company fundamentals, and valuation. At the end of August, the portfolio traded at 9.3 times forecast 2026 earnings, compared with 12 times for the Vietnam All Share Index. The valuation of the broader market has also become increasingly influenced by a small number of outliers, most notably VIC, which trades on a P/E ratio of 85x.
September therefore arrives with rather more than the usual interest. Vietnam's FTSE upgrade marks another step in the development of a market that has changed enormously over VNH's twenty years and comes as the country needs deeper pools of capital to finance its ambitions. Higher funding costs, global uncertainty and the concentration of parts of the market still warrant close attention. Yet corporate earnings remain strong, valuations across much of the portfolio remain attractive and August provided some welcome evidence that fundamentals are beginning to count for more in share prices. After July's summertime blues, August changed the tune. With Vietnam about to take its long-awaited place in the FTSE Emerging Markets club, September promises to be an interesting month.
For more information please contact:
Dynam Capital Limited
Craig Martin Tel: +84 28 3827 7590
info@dynamcapital.com |www.dynamcapital.com
Cavendish Capital Markets Limited
Corporate Broker and Financial Advisor Tel: +44 20 7220 0500
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy Policy.
Latest directors dealings
- 9 minutes ago Prudential
- 20 minutes ago Vanquis Banking Group 20
- 2 hours ago Frasers Group
- 2 hours ago Cavendish Financial
- 2 hours ago Diaceutics