Dragon Capital-managed VEIL plans trio of 10% tender offers

Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited (VEIL), the largest foreign-managed equity fund in Vietnam, has announced a tender offer for up to 10% of its issued share capital, with the option to conduct up to two additional tenders over the next year.

The fund, managed by Dragon Capital, has released a circular to shareholders detailing the terms with the initial offer for 10% of the shares opening on December 15 and runs until December 31.

The VEIL board will seek shareholder approval for the first deal at the general meeting on January 8, 2026.

If approved, the pricing for the first offer will be confirmed on January 20 and completed on January 22. The price will be set at a 3% discount to the prevailing adjusted net asset value (NAV) per share.

The fund also signalled it could conduct two additional tender offers within the next 12 months, each of up to 10%. If fully executed, total buybacks could reach about 30%.

“The board continues to believe the medium-term investment case for Vietnam remains strong and the company represents an attractive access point for investors to gain exposure to the country,” the trust said in its stockmarket notice on December 15.

Participating shareholders will be able to choose between receiving cash at the offer price, converting their holdings into units of the Vietnam Equity (UCITS) Fund, or receiving an in-kind distribution of underlying portfolio securities, subject to eligibility conditions.

KB Securities (KBSV) estimated that under a scenario in which VEIL carries out the full 30% tender program at a 3% discount to adjusted NAV, the total value of shares repurchased could reach VND14.3 trillion ($543.47 million).

VEIL’s portfolio is heavily weighted toward Vietnam’s largest blue-chip stocks, including Vingroup (HoSE: VIC, Vinhomes (HoSE: VHM), Mobile World (HoSE: MWG), BIDV (HoSE: BID), Vietcombank (HoSE: VCB), Techcombank (HoSE: TCB), Hoa Phat (HoSE: HPG), Khang Dien House (HoSE: KDH), and VietinBank (HoSE: CTG).

KBSV estimates that, in a full 30% divestment scenario, VEIL could offload tens of millions of shares in each of its major holdings.

Despite the scale, KBSV noted that potential selling would represent only around 11-15% of total net foreign selling recorded in 2024 and the first 11 months of 2025 combined. Foreign investors currently account for about 9% of overall market turnover, suggesting limited impact on broader market liquidity.

This marks the third buyback program initiated by Dragon Capital for VEIL in the past two years. The fund repurchased 8.1% of its shares in 2024 and 12.8% in 2025. Previous buybacks were equivalent to just one to three trading sessions of heavy foreign net selling and did not materially affect overall market trends, KBSV said.

KBSV added that VEIL’s NAV has risen about 15.5% year to date in U.S. dollar terms, indicating that the tender offers likely reflect portfolio rebalancing by a minority of investors rather than dissatisfaction with fund performance.

As of December 18, VEIL's total net assets reached nearly $1.4 billion, with annualized returns of 11%, the company said.