US financial groups seek to expand Vietnam interests

Leaders of top U.S. financial corporations have expressed interest in expanding investment in Vietnam.

The comments were made at their meetings with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Washington D.C. on May 16, local time, during his working trip to the U.S.

Joseph Bae, CEO of KKR Fund, said the global investment firm intended to expand into diverse fields in Vietnam like real estate, infrastructure, digital transformation, food, consumer goods, and technology.

KKK Fund, one of the world's biggest private investment funds, has invested more than $1 billion in three Vietnamese companies, namely Vingroup’s Vinhomes, Masan Group’s Masan MEATLife Company, and Equest Education Group.

The CEO rated Vietnam as a very appealing market for investors given the government's favorable policies, its important geographical position, and youthful and energetic population.

The comprehensive partnership between Vietnam and the U.S. will also create favorable conditions for investment activities, Bae added.

The prime minister praised KKR's efforts to enlarge its footprint in Vietnam. "Despite the pandemic, Vietnam's start-up companies attracted around $1.3 billion in investment capital in 2021, an all-time high," he noted.

Chinh said Vietnam expected to receive KKR's support in policy consultancy, technical issues, and human resource training in the coming time.

In a separate meeting on the same day, Alfred Kelly, Chairman and CEO of Visa, highly valued the plan and development of cashless payments in Vietnam. With the growth rate tripling from 8% in 2020 to 28% this year, Visa believed that the Vietnamese government will achieve its cashless payment targets set by 2027.

Visa, the world's leading digital payments group, has maintained its engagement in the development and application of online payments in Vietnam for over 20 years. Visa card was first accepted by Vietnamese retailers in 1995, and the first Visa credit card was issued two years later.

Chinh said he appreciated Visa's presence for many years, and urged the group to make investment expansion, new product research and development, deeper engagement with Vietnamese commercial banks, and further contribution to digital transformation and development of Vietnam's financial system.

During the meeting, Chinh assured representatives from Standard & Poor's (S&P's) that Vietnam is working hard to build a safe, transparent, effective, and sustainable capital market. He solicited S&P's aid in credit rating Vietnamese firms.

The prime minister discussed with Citigroup executives the possibilities of increasing non-cash payment cooperation, developing capital markets, reacting to climate change, and transitioning to a low-carbon economy.

On the same afternoon, Chinh visited and rang the bell to end the trading session at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

He also attended the awarding ceremony of two cooperation documents in the fields of finance, banking, and investment funds between Vietnamese and U.S. partners. One of them was a cooperation deal between Vietnam’s State Securities Commission and the NYSE on supporting market upgrading and building a mechanism for investors to engage in the two securities markets.

On May 15, local time, the Vietnamese prime minister met with Charles Kaye, CEO of Warburg Pincus, one of the world's oldest and largest private equity funds.

Vietnam has become Warburg Pincus's third-largest investment destination in Asia, trailing China and India. Nearly $2 billion has been poured into numerous Vietnamese companies since 2013, including Vingroup’s joint ventures, VinaCapital, Techcombank, Becamex, MoMo e-wallets, Ho Tram Resort, and Metropole Hanoi.

The CEO outlined the company's objectives to further invest in Vietnam’s real estate market, as well as some problems and obstacles encountered while constructing the Ho Tram project in Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

Chinh noted he believed Warburg Pincus' expansion into the Vietnamese real estate market was both appropriate and opportune. The fund's global customer network will serve as a link to lure U.S. and other foreign investors to Vietnam.

Warburg Pincus CEO said that Vietnam's increasingly stable business and macroeconomic environment is favorable for foreign investors, but several areas need to be improved, such as infrastructure.

The fund is seeking to raise foreign ownership in Vietnamese commercial banks beyond the present 30% restriction, which has been repeatedly mentioned by foreign investors but has yet to be addressed.