This is also the first ever equity deal of a Vietnamese enterprise being honored in this category, which has contributed to heightened status of Vietnam in the global equity market.
On November 30, FinanceAsia Award – one of the most prestigious awards in finance has announced its annual Achievement Awards winners with the outstanding deals by category across the region. As such, with Vincom Retail completed its 740 million USD initial equity offering and made its debut on the HO Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE), the shopping mall operator under Vietnam’s leading property developer Vingroup has been honored by the FinanceAsia magazine as “The Best Private Equity Deal” in 2017.
After one month of listing in the stock market, the stock value of VRE has increased 20%, taking Vincom Retail to be one of the listed companies in stock market with the biggest capital. This is also the first shopping mall operators in Vietnam listing shares on the stock exchange.
The shopping mall operator debuted amid light trading to close at 40,550 dong a share, valuing the company 77 trillion dong ($3.38 billion) and making it one of Vietnam's top 10 listed names by market capitalization. Foreign investors, including the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, on Tuesday acquired 415 million, or 21.8%, of listed shares, for 40,600 dong apiece.
Vincom Retail was founded in 2012 to develop modern retail channels and operations, becoming a private company a year later. After starting out with three malls, it now has three subsidiaries and 41 malls operating on four platforms: Vincom Center, Vincom Mega Mall, Vincom+ and Vincom Plaza. The company plans to have 200 malls by 2021. Vincom Retail currently has shopping centers in 22 cities across Vietnam with a gross retail floor area exceeding 1.1 million sq. meters.
They account for 60% of retail space in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, according to research by Colliers International. The existing prime assets of Vincom Retail include Vincom Dong Khoi and Vincom Thu Duc in HCM City, Vincom Ha Long in Quang Ninh Province, Vincom Ngo Quyen in Da Nang City, and Vincom Ba Trieu, Vincom Long Bien, Vincom Mega Mall Royal City and Vincom Mega Mall Times City in Ha Noi. Vincom Retail competes with Japan's Aeon and Takashimaya, France's Auchan, South Korea's E-Mart and Lotte, Malaysia's Parkson, Thailand's Robinson and Big C and Vietnam's own Co.opMart.
FinanceAsia was established in 1996 as a monthly magazine and is published 10 times a year. It organizes annual awards for Asia's financial industry, the FinanceAsia Achievement Awards, which each year recognizes the region's most significant transactions and the financial institutions that advised on them. The trophies are given out at a black-tie dinner at the start of the year.
