On Monday 12 July, Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited
(VEIL) and Vietnam Growth Fund Limited (VGF), investment funds managed by Dragon Capital, held their annual general meetings (AGMs) in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. The AGMs saw unusually high turn-out by shareholders, at 66% for VEIL, and 66.8% for VGF. All resolutions were voted in line with the
recommendations of the Boards, including votes against wind-up of the funds.
Richard McKegney, Chairman of VEIL, said, “The continuation
vote was written into the fund’s Articles of Association back in 1995 at the
time of launch. This was before the stock market existed in Vietnam.
Shareholders have now had the chance to express their views and the strong
consensus is to go forward.”
Marc Faber, Chairman of VGF, said, “We are pleased with the
confidence shareholders have expressed in the prospects for both Vietnam and
the fund, by voting overwhelmingly to continue.”
Vietnam is generally seen as one of the world’s most promising
frontier markets, as reform, allow underlying demographic, social and
cultural forces to come into their own as powerful growth drivers. The
country’s stock market has developed rapidly in recent years, now standing at
almost $40bn, from under $1bn in 2005, and funds managed by Dragon Capital
are the biggest foreign investor in the Vietnamese stock market.
VEIL and VGF have recently been the object of attention from
VR Capital, a Moscow-based fund manager with holdings in the funds, had
supported the resolutions to wind up. But 83.24% of those voting in VEIL’s
AGM and 89.22% of those voting in VGF’s AGM opposed wind-up. It is clear
therefore that the substantial majority of shareholders wanted the funds to
continue.
Asked about the outcome of the AGMs, Dominic Scriven, CEO of
Dragon Capital, said, “I would like to thank the investors in VEIL and VGF
for participating so enthusiastically in this year’s meetings. The results
reflect a clear sentiment that now is not the time to be exiting Vietnam,
given strong market fundamentals combined with low equity valuations.”
The quality of macro-economic management is widely seen to be
improving in Vietnam, as the Government moves to tighten financial
regulation, modernize monetary policy and build more stability into growth.
GDP is expected to expand by 6.5% this year”.
Contact
Dragon Capital
Beat Schuerch – Phone: +84-8-3823-9355
beatschuerch@dragoncapital.com
Rachel Hill – Phone: +44-122-573-1402
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