VinaCapital: Vietnam remains attractive destination to foreign investors

Rebuilding trust pays positive dividends - VinaCapital’s CEO Don Lam talks about how his company has performed and what it plans for the future.

The Asia Asset Management “Best of the Best” fund management awards are in its seventh year. There are a wide range of categories, including the “best fund house” award for each country in the region. I don’t know what other fund managers applied for the awards, but we are very happy to receive the recognition as it puts our brand alongside other winners from world-renowned companies like JP Morgan Asset Management, HSBC Asset Management, and Franklin Templeton, as well as country-level fund managers like Mirae from South Korea and Singapore’s UOB.

My understanding is that the award for “best fund house” has a number of criteria, from overall market share and net assets raised, to the depth of the investment team and client servicing. For VinaCapital, in addition to demonstrating the rapid growth of our net asset base and our investment results, we were able to demonstrate the important role VinaCapital has taken in educating private and institutional investors around the world on the opportunities available in the Vietnamese market. Our slogan is “taking Vietnam to the world” and this helps define our approach to working with investors.

I believe we have a very good track record of investor relations, including updating our fund shareholders and reaching out to other potential investors. Our participation in the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, for example, is evidence of this approach. We were the first Vietnam-based company to join the WEF and we lobbied extensively for the WEF regional meeting that will be held in Ho Chi Minh City this year.

We are happy to be involved in this effort, and I believe Asia Asset Management did consider this broader approach to business growth when selecting its country-level winners.

How about VinaCapital’s performance last year and its plans in 2010?

VinaCapital like all asset managers over the last 12 months faced the important challenge of rebuilding investor trust following the global financial market crisis of 2008. It’s not a pleasant number to bring up, but during the financial crisis of 2008 VinaCapital’s asset under management declined by about 25 per cent.

This was actually a strong performance compared to many fund managers, but for 2009 our goal was to demonstrate to our shareholders that we remain in a position to make good investments and to grow their money. We announced several deals over the past year – such as the Masan equity sale and the Hilton Hanoi hotel sale – that helped demonstrate to our investors that our funds were still holding high-value assets.

For 2009, VinaCapital was able to increase the combined net asset value of its funds by 6.6 per cent, which is an acceptable result given the difficult investment environment.

For 2010, our main objective is to increase the share prices of our funds, as they are still trading at a discount to the underlying net asset values. The issue here is essentially investor confidence in the market. When a fund trades at a discount, the market is essentially expressing doubt over the published value of the fund’s holdings.

Fund managers can respond in many ways – by selling assets as needed to generate income, and possible issue a dividend or buy back shares to lift the share price. We are currently reviewing all options available to our funds and will update our shareholders as soon as possible.

In terms of investing strategy, nothing has changed – we aim to buy into good companies and projects, help improve their operations or develop the assets, then exit in a manner that will generate a return for both our Vietnamese partners and our shareholders.

How do you foresee the investment opportunities in Vietnam in the years to come and does VinaCapital have any plans for raising new funds?

The domestic economy is growing at a healthy rate in 2010 and we expect to see deals across a range of sectors. In real estate, we have several important initiatives to bring a new quality standard to the residential market. We recently announced the VinaProjects joint venture to manage the development and construction of our real estate projects, and other interesting announcements in this area will follow soon.

In equities, there are a broad range of sectors that we are interested in, including health care, financial services, education and certain types of agribusiness.

As for new funds, we intend to raise a new unlisted real estate fund this year, which will target institutional investors that do not invest in listed companies, such as our current real estate fund VinaLand Limited. As an unlisted fund, the new offering will attract a different type of investor from our existing funds, which are listed.

Some institutional investors do not invest in listed funds, so we are just creating an opportunity for investors who otherwise would have few options to invest in Vietnam.

"VinaCapital Group is one of the largest foreign investor in Vietnam's real estate market, with considerable local knowledge and experience. The VinaCapital conference which was held on Oct. 25 -27, 2009 in Hanoi attracted more than 200 foreign investors and business leaders who wanted to know about Vietnam market and the investment opportunities in the coming up years. Attending the conference also was Mrs. Katherine Yip Geicke who is one of Asia's leading business women and is a Founding Partner and Advisor to the Board of VinaCapital; Professor Kenneth Courtis - former vice-president Goldman Sachs; Mr. Marc Townsend - CEO of CB Richard Ellis Vietnam; and VinaCapital Group leaders"

贊成全港校本驗毒 馬詩慧：Monique應入戒毒所

(星島日報報道)靚模周凱盈（Monique）在校內藏有毒品，出庭前還被驗出仍有吸毒，身為名模的馬詩慧（Janet）認為要盡快判對方入戒毒所，而她亦讚成校園強制驗毒。

　　昨日Janet帶同兒子出席港安醫院慈善基金的活動，提到有o靚模Monique吸毒，她說：「法庭話她再吸毒才可能會被判入戒毒所。仲等下次？最好立即戒毒，毒癮更難戒。」她謂一直都留意女兒在學校的情況，亦很支持強制驗毒，「有時家長真的不知道子女吸毒，本身如果沒有吸毒，怎會怕驗毒？」她認為校園驗毒是對社會好，但要有適當的配套解決私穩問題。

　　汪詩詩與女兒 Jasmine出席，戴了眼鏡的Jasmine十分可愛，詩詩謂她與老公甄子丹有近視，相信女兒是遺傳，她說：「最初配眼鏡時她好開心，後來覺得不漂亮，影相要除眼鏡！」她謂兒子亦遺傳了爸爸喜歡打\夫的興趣，不時會拿着木棍舞來舞去！她透露甄子丹會回港出席首映，而她已預備了驚喜的聖誕禮物。

■馬詩慧與兒子一同製作聖誕曲奇公仔

■汪詩詩與女兒Jasmine出席慈善活動。

■（後排左二起）歐陽妙芝、汪詩詩及馬詩慧享受親子樂。

汪詩詩子女得真傳

汪詩詩、馬詩慧（Janet）和歐陽妙芝三位靚媽咪，昨日帶同子女一起出席港安醫院慈善基金活動，即場創作聖誕曲奇。汪詩詩的囡囡Jasmine戴了眼鏡，詩詩表示囡囡有百多度近視：「佢咁細個就有近視，應該係遺傳，因為我同子丹都有近視。我帶佢去配眼鏡時佢好開心，但我就唔開心。囡囡都好貪靚，有時影相都會除眼鏡。」

詩詩又笑言囝囝James好像有功夫底似的，經常拿起公公的拐杖揮舞，不知是否老公甄子丹遺傳，至於是否因囝囝看得爹哋的戲太多？她說：「我唔畀佢睇啲暴力嘢，淨係睇卡通片。」講到今個聖誕，老公要在大陸拍戲，她和一對仔女則會留在香港過節。


另外，對於近日有o靚模被控藏毒一事，Janet亦贊成實行校園驗毒計劃。

■汪詩詩與女兒Jasmine出席慈善活動。

■（後排左二起）歐陽妙芝、汪詩詩及馬詩慧享受親子樂。

港安醫院慈善基金聖誕曲奇記者招待會

葉靖女士愛心支持為本年度節慶季節揭開序幕港安醫院慈善基金假香港君悅酒店舉行首次聖誕曲奇記者招待會，為聖誕佳節揭開序幕，並以此進一步擴展港安醫院慈善基金現有的外展慈善項目。基金的受惠基金包括兒童心臟基金、兒童聽覺基金、護眼基金、癌病基金、兒童醫療基金等，所有活動均以幫助香港及內地急需醫療服務的兒童為宗旨。記者招待會更即場讓嘉賓試食由Complete Deelite精心炮製的聖誕曲奇餅。

香港港安醫院院長暨行政總裁楊銘澧博士聯同一眾名人媽媽，包括歐陽妙芝、汪詩詩及馬詩慧出席記者會，盡顯他們對此一慈善活動的無私支持。其他重要嘉賓尚有小兒科專科醫生梁平，他在會上為嘉賓講述兒童先天性心臟病的概況。此外，Complete Deelite創辦人余麗麗女士亦即席示範了粉飾曲奇的技藝。

這次活動背後的一股重要動力──亞洲著名慈善家、企業家及商界名人葉靖女士 ﹝Ms. Katherine Yip Geicke﹞可謂功不可沒。她除了慷慨解囊資助基金會之外，還抽出寶貴時間與基金會外展計劃的受惠兒童共渡美好時光。葉靖女士身為AMW HK Ltd.創辦人，長期從事兒童教育產品的開發。她更是Sanrio Digital、Vina Capital及Pacific Alliance的創辦夥伴暨董事會成員，一直堅守「樂於助人」的原則。

葉靖女士表示：「我相信成功的商界領袖應該回饋社會，這是與社區保持聯繫和建立互信的重要方法。尤其在現今的困難時期，信任更是前所未有地重要」。

葉靖女士更詳述她如此投入慈善活動的原因：「我一向熱心幫助兒童，我是兩名孩子的母親，因此對兒童問題特別關心」。

葉靖女士是各種慈善活動的常客，除了與伸手助人協會、香港癌症基金會、港安醫院慈善基金等機構已經合作逾十年之外，更積極為The Yip Geicke Foundation籌謀。

香港港安醫院院長暨行政總裁楊銘澧博士表示：「這次活動大獲成功，而且成果令人喜出望外，這實在有賴於各位的支持。活動籌得的善款將可幫助大量急需醫療服務的兒童。我想藉此機會深深感謝歐陽妙芝女士、汪詩詩女士、馬詩慧女士及葉靖女士對本基金會的不懈支持」。

如欲支持此一別具意義的慈善活動，可惠顧Complete Deelite的聖誕曲奇。曲奇禮盒分為三層禮品聖誕樹及七層禮品聖誕樹兩款，裡面有聖誕蛋糕、大朱古力曲奇、瑞士朱古力、雜錦曲奇等精品，售價視乎禮品組合由港幣100元至2,000元不等，亦有價值200元的禮券公開發售。詳情請瀏覽http://completedeelite.blogspot.com/ 或http://www.hkahf.org.hk/。

由2009年12月10日起，聖誕曲奇亦於UA戲院有售。所有慈善義賣將於2010年2月結束。
查閱港安醫院慈善基金詳情，請瀏覽：http://www.hkah.org.hk/