Jack Ma-invested fund unloads Vietnam holdings worth $130 mln in Q3

China’s Tianhong Vietnam Market Stock Initiated Securities Investment Fund (QDII) saw outflows of around RMB930 million ($130.4 million) in the July-September quarter.

According to its quarterly report, Q3 was the second straight quarter that the fund, run by Ant Technology Group-controlled Tianhong Asset Management (Tianhong AM), saw investors selling its fund certificates.

As of September 30, the fund’s net asset value (NAV) stood at RMB5.12 billion ($718 million), lower than circa RMB7 billion as of end-March.

Despite the outflows, Tianhong Vietnam remains one of the largest open-ended funds active on Vietnam’s stock market.

Equities accounted for 93.83% of its NAV as of end-September, or RMB4.8 billion ($673 million).

The 10 biggest holdings were: Sacombank (STB), Vietcombank (VCB), HDBank (HDB), Mobile World (MWG), VPBank (VPB), steelmaker Hoa Phat Group (HPG), Saigon Securities (SSI), MBBank (MBB), VietinBank (CTG), and tech firm FPT (FPT). Together, they made up 71.06% of the fund’s NAV.

Financials accounted for 61.84% of the fund’s NAV as of September 30, followed by basic materials (9.49%), non-essential consumer goods (7.05%), real estate (6.44%), and information technology (6.01%).

Given the outflows in Q3, the fund cut holdings of VPB, STB, HDB, CTG, HPG and MWG. Meanwhile, it bought an additional 3.45 million FPT shares.

The fund is run by Tianjin-based Tianhong Asset Management (Tianhong AM), which is 51% owned by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma-controlled Ant Technology Group.

Tianhong Vietnam, which debuted in Vietnam in early 2020, tracks the VN30 Index that comprises the 30 most liquid and largest stocks traded on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange.

According to the fund’s report, structural weaknesses of the Vietnamese capital market, as a frontier market, are still evident. These including high percentage of retail trading, emotional impact of foreign trading and the need to improve the governance of listed companies.

“However, over the longer term, we believe that the capital market trend is in line with the economic trend, and the overall economic situation in Vietnam remains on a healthy track,” it adds.