Vietnam Holding released interim results this week that underscore another period of net asset value growth and positive returns for the investment trust’s shareholders.
Producing returns for its investors has long been a habit of Dynam Capital, the manager of the Vietnam Holding Investment Trust, and the half-year period to 31st December was no exception.
Although net asset value growth of 1.9% in the period wasn’t as strong as it has been in recent times, VNH still outperformed the benchmark during a period of choppy range-bound trade for Vietnamese stocks.
GDP growth of 7% exceeded the government’s own target of 6.5% and supported strong equity performance over the full year period, even if the second half was range-bound.
Vietnam Holding returned over 16% for the full year period.
Dynam Capital employs a highly concentrated, high-conviction approach to Vietnamese equities, which has led to consistent outperformance of the benchmark and material returns for shareholders.
While the index traded broadly sideways during the recent interim period, one standout star performer within the Vietnam Holding portfolio was FPT, Vietnam’s leading technology company and the trust’s top holding.
FPT shares rose a bumper 85% during the full year period and contributed significantly to VNH’s overall return.
The company is based in Vietnam but has successfully tapped into Japan’s high-tech industries and is becoming one of Southeast Asia’s semiconductor growth stories.
In 2024, FPT inked a $200m partnership with Nvidia to expand its AI development and research capabilities. It also launched AI data centres in Japan to expand its infrastructure in the country and better serve its clients.
Such innovation explains the stock’s strong performance and validates its position as VNH’s top holding.
Vietnam Holding 2025 outlook
Vietnam Holding’s managers said they ‘remain cautiously optimistic’ about 2025. And they have every reason to be.
Looking through the noise created by Donald Trump’s approach to tariffs, Vietnam’s structural growth story continues unabated.
The Vietnamese government’s focus on infrastructure is directly supporting the manager’s investment thesis. The government’s actions to improve the country’s major infrastructure are supporting Vietnam Holding’s key investment themes of urbanisation and industrialisation.
Vietnam’s ambitions are demonstrated by plans for a high-speed rail line from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh, which will cut the journey time from around 30 hours today down to around 5 hours.
In addition to the manager’s deft stock selection and Vietnam’s favourable growth attributes, VNH shareholders stand to benefit from a wave of capital into Vietnamese equities when Vietnam is eventually promoted to an emerging market from a frontier market.
The upgrade to emerging market status is predicted to unleash billions in inward investment into Vietnam’s equity market.
Given Vietnam’s growth trajectory and relatively attractive valuation—the Vietnamese index trades at around 10x forward earnings—it’s easy to see fund managers globally snapping up the country’s equities as soon as they have the opportunity.