Vietjet Air Had 26 Foreign Investors

  The total number of shares that foreign shareholders are holding at Vietjet Air accounting for more than 24% of charter capital.

Recently, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Transport has signed a written approval for Vietjet’s 5 shareholders to transfer 66,506,870 shares, equivalent to 22.169% of the charter capital of 3,000 billion VND to 23 foreign investors.

Earlier, in December 2016, the Ministry of Transport has also agreed for 1 Vietjet’s shareholder to transfer 6.566 million shares, equivalent to 2.626% of charter capital for 3 foreign investors, who are: Wareham Group Limited (British Virgin Island), Dragon Capital Markets Limited (Cayman Island) and DC Developing Markets Strategies Public Company (Ireland). The amount of transferred money was not revealed, but ranged from 65 billion VND to 788 billion VND. The transfer has been completed and aproved by the Department of Planning and Investment of Hanoi on December 22^nd 2016.

In total, the transfer of shares to foreign investors has reached 24.358% of charter capital.

According to Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration, the transfer of shares to foreign investors of Vietjet is valid. The transfer does not increase the charter capital of Vietjet, foreign investors do not participate in the executive apparatus, management operations and administration works of Vietjet and therefore it does not alter the business plan and development strategy of Vietjet.

Relating to the transfer of shares to foreign investors, according to Decree 92, the foreign parties cannot occupy more than 30% of charter capital and foreign members shall not exceed 1/3 of the total number of members participating in the executive apparatus.

Vietjet Air is the first airline in Vietnam operating under the model of the new generation airline, with low cost and provides a variety of services for customers to select. Vietjet is an official member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) with IOSA safety operation certificate. Besides the position of "Top 500 Leading Brands in Asia in 2016", Vietjet is voted as "Best Asian Low Cost Carrier” in 2015 by the TTG Travel Awards and Top 3 airlines that have fastest growth facebook fanpage in the world, evaluated by SocialBakers.

Currently, Vietjet is operating 42 A320 and A321 aircrafts, performed about 350 flights a day and has transported nearly 35 million passengers, with 60 routes covering destinations in Vietnam and international routes to Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia...

Vietjet has planned to develop extensive flight network throughout Asia - Pacific region. Moreover, they are studying for further expansion of routes in the region and has signed procurement contracts to purchase new generation aircrafts.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

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Why Japan Investors Invest in Vietnam

  The depreciation of yen against dollar, more available funds for loans from Japanese banks, and the fast aging population make Japanese corporations increasing investment in foreign markets including Vietnam through setting up business venture.

In a morning of Jan 22^nd 2015, the office of Ministry of Planning and Investment and Foreign Investment Agency have met and worked with small and medium business delegation of Japan to explore investment opportunities in Vietnam.  The Japanese business delegation led by Mr. Shuichi Kageyama, vice president of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, are representative of 21 companies operating in the area of construction, real estate, electronics, manufacturing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals products, medical devices.  The visit has shown interests of Japanese investors in various sectors in the socio-economic development, environmental and investment policies of the government of Vietnam in attracting foreign investment. The Vietnam government also shows effort to support Japanese investor through improving on administrative procedures, and transparency.

The visit of Japanese delegation to Vietnam should be noted amid the strongest wave of Japanese corporations’ investment into foreign markets since 2006 after building up record cash on hands.  The yen has been at weak level making M&A into foreign market expensive.  However it is expected that yen will depreciate further against dollar over the year to come due to the policy of Mr. Shinzo Abe. In the meantime, Japanese banks are also ready to make more funds available for loans.  Another fact is that Japanese population is aging faster. Those combined reasons together with Vietnam's attractiveness for investors make Japanese corporations increase investment through making direct investment or acquiring other corporations in foreign markets including Vietnam.

According to the Foreign Investment Agency, as of Oct 2014, Vietnam has attracted more than USD 36.5 billion from Japan with more than 2,434 FDI projects. Japan ranks first in the number of countries and territories that have investment projects in Vietnam, in which, the first 10 months of the year 2014, total investment of newly registered and increased capital from Japan reached USD 1.66 billion.  Thanh Hoa has 9 projects with a total investment of USD 9.68 billion; Hanoi has 607 projects at nearly USD 4 billion; Binh Duong province has 241 projects at USD 3.8 billion.

Japanese corporations invest in various area including retail, food processing, IT, manufacturing, constructions.  Several prominent Japanese investors have been successful in Vietnam are Cannon, Isuzu Motors, Ajinomoto, Toyota Corporations, Logitem Logistics, Mitsubishi Corp, Kotobuki Holdings, Taisei Corp, Sumitomo Corp, Itochu Corp. The list will continue to grow as the time to come as Japan diversifies from China and Vietnam continues to emerge as an attractive destination.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

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Highlights in Real Estate Investment in Vietnam

  Vietnam is attracting interest of investors in both domestic and foreign market. Overall, investor confidence was returning to the Vietnam real estate market. Both buyers and sellers have enhanced activity in recent months.

The real estate market of Vietnam has overcome the recession period within 4 or 5 years ago but in the last 12 months, the market has recovered and noted positive signs as well as confidence in the market in general.

Law on housing and real estate business Law takes effect in July 2015 and has acted quickly and positively on the real estate market in Vietnam. The changes in the Law on housing have significantly eased the regulations on home ownership for foreigners, although there are still some limitations.

"Hot spots" of FDI inflows

According to a recent report of Jones Lang LaSalle Vietnam (JLL), a series of free trade agreements such as TPP, EU and ASEAN will further promote the medium and long term development. Interest rates and inflation rate have declined significantly and became more stable in the past two years, helping the investment activity to occur more positive in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. With some domestic and foreign investors such as CapitaLand and Keppel Land, they have spurred the construction activities thanks to the growing revenue in the last 12 months.

Accordingly, the amount of disbursed FDI in the period from January to September of 2015 rose by 8.4% compared to the same period last year, reaching 9.7 billion USD. This is the strongest growth since the late 1980s, contrary to the slowdown of the Chinese economy. The amount of registered capital of new investors also rose even more sharply with 11 billion USD, focused primarily on the manufacturing industry, in which the energy and electronics industries are the sectors with the highest registered capital investment in the year, followed by the real estate sector.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, FDI investment in the industrial park in Vietnam accounted for 67% of total FDI in Vietnam with 11 billion USD and accounting for 59% of the total 1,400 projects in the first 9 months of 2015. A notable transaction is the event that Amata Corporation acquired the land worth 279 million USD in Long Thanh (Dong Nai) for the purpose of building residential and industrial areas valued of 500 million USD.

According to JLL, the residential real estate prices in Vietnam maintained an average rate with 2 bedroom apartments, 70 m2, 10 - 15 minutes to reach the central area of Ho Chi Minh City, which are sold at the price of 1,600 - 2,000 USD/m2, equivalent to 112,000 – 140,000 USD/apartment. When compared with the big cities in the region, the price is believed to increase significantly.

Who dominated the real estate market of Vietnam?

JLL's report showed that domestic investors are boosting investment activity in the real estate market of Vietnam. The largest real estate investors in Vietnam are Vingroup and Novaland Group.

Vingroup is Vietnam’s largest real estate development and management with market capitalization of about 3.4 billion USD. Vingroup’s investment portfolio includes 45 real estate projects spread across many sectors of the real estate market, including Vinhomes luxury apartments and villas; Vincom Center and Vincom Mega Mall; Vincom Office; 5 star Vinpearl resort; Vinpearl Luxury resort....

Novaland Group has participated in the real estate market in 2007 with the first project is Sunrise City with investment capital of 500 million USD located on Nguyen Huu Tho road, district 7. The real estate business of Novaland focused on the apartment complex segment from mid to high classes and the segment of house land with 25 projects that are being implemented throughout the downtown districts.

Vietnam is becoming an attractive place for foreign investment in the medium term than many other countries in Southeast Asia. Data from Real Capital Analytics (RCA) recorded that there are more attention from a number of private investment funds that are allocated foreign capital into Vietnam in an attempt to increase their market presence in Vietnam.

In the 2^nd quarter of 2015, a joint venture of Warburg Pincus - a US investment fund, has invested 100 million USD into Vincom Retail, the Vietnam’s largest trade center ownership and management in Vietnam. Also in this quarter, Gaw Capital Partners has received the transfer of 4 real estate projects under various segments from Indochina Land with a total value of 106 million USD. Gamuda Land has also receive the transfer of 40% shares (equivalent to 64.1 million USD) in the Celadon City project, a modern urban area with initial investment by a joint venture between Sacomreal, Thanh Thanh Cong (TTC) and An Phu Gia.

The current real estate profit margin is high

JLL's analysis shows that investors are now enjoying 6 - 7% profitability rate for residential real estate and 9 - 11% for commercial real estate, depending on location, completion time, quality of the project and the signing time of the tenants.

According to General Director of JLL Vietnam, real estate investment in emerging markets has always been seen as risky investments but with higher potential profits. Investors are willing to engage in joint venture projects in these markets, where they will combine with local investors who wish to have capital supporting - in order to have a foothold in the market before and also experience the exponential growth in the future when the economy of these market growing fast.

Moreover, the emerging markets such as Vietnam will have the potential growth factors, including population growth and high urbanization rate. Investors and project developers can take advantage of these factors.

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Risk Management: A Vital Element When Doing Business

  Risk management is a vital element when doing business but so far, not many enterprises concern about it.

According to a recent survey with 522 companies, there are only 43 companies, accounting for about 8%, have the independent risk management department in their business. More noteworthy, the majority of these 43 companies operating in the banking and financial sector, which has nothing new to risk management. In fact, not all banks have independent and effective risk management departments. The negative problems related to the banking system in recent times somewhat showed the picture about the risk management of this sector.

Risk is understood as any events and situations that could harmful to the ability to achieve the business objectives of the enterprise. Risk management is organized in a formal way and is conducted continuously to identify, control and report the risks that may affect the achievement of the business objectives of the enterprise.

So why businesses are not interested in risk management? Part of this problem stems from the awareness of the leaders. In order to build and operate the risk management system in the enterprise, it needs the commitment of the senior leaders. If senior leaders do not aware of this problem, the administration process will be difficult to achieve the desired effectiveness.

Recently, there are many theories and systems of risk management but small and medium enterprises should be cautious when apply because system and theory are just general and they should be adjusted when applying to each business.

In order to form the culture of risk management, the leaders must along with the employees to implement it regularly and for each project. In theory, the risk management process is carried out in 5 steps: identify risk; evaluate its impact; determine the likelihood; action and measures; monitoring and evaluation.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

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Vietnam Real Estate Sector Review

  Real estate is one of the sector with important position and role for the national economy, have a direct relationship with the financial and monetary market, the construction market, building materials market and the labor market... The sustainable development and effective management of this sector will contribute significantly to promoting economic-social development, creating the ability to attract investment capital, contributing to the development, industrialization and modernization of the country.

There have been more favorable developments for the country's economy in 2015 and 2015. The prices of oil continued to fall; GDP grows at stable rate around 6%. The inflation rate was controlled at 4.09% average; reduced deposit rates, lending rates were adjusted down to 10%. Foreign direct investment in Vietnam reached US $ 20.23 billion, exceeding 19% compared to the target (17 billion dollars) and expected in increase in 2016.

Mr. Nguyen Tran Nam, Former Deputy Minister of Construction, president of the Vietnam Real Estate Association, said the real estate market has been recovering, particularly in 2015. There were 40,000 successful transactions, increased 75% compared to 2014 in only Hanoi and HCM. In addition, the Vietnamese laws have changed which allow foreigners and Vietnamese people living abroad to own real estate in Vietnam from January 7/2015. The metro construction projects in Hanoi and HCMC, modern road system construction suchas Nhat Tan Bridge,  Long Thanh - DauGiay highway ...  are also factors contributing to boost the real estate market.

Along with these positive factors, the volatility of the financial markets due to the impact of political issues and global movement (the gold market, securities, forex have reduce the lending rate) has turned the property into a safe place for investment at the moment.

In the current favorable environment, the property becomesa channel to attract investors who want to own property not to live but to invest in. This is an appropriate time for investment after nearly 7 years. In a report, Mr. Marc Townsend, Managing Director of CBRE Vietnam, saidthat ” in 2015 the real estate market will witness the spectacular comeback of property speculators”

According this report, if in 2014, cheap apartment was considered as the hottest segment of the market, in 2015, the segment of medium and high-end apartments returned to be the hottest attraction. According to data from CBRE, yielding from investing in luxury apartments in Vietnam is quite high compared to other countries in the region (7- 8% compared to 3% in Singapore, 4-6% Bangkok and 4% in Hong Kong). With a minimum profit margin of 7-8% a year and the highest one at 15-20%, this segment is attracting the attention of real estate speculators.

The project with big scale which delayed during freezing period such as Goldmark City, Sapphire Palace, Gemek Tower in Hanoi, Vista Verde, the Park Residence, Le Meridien, City Gate Towers, has been released to sell up.

As reported by CBRE, in the quarter 4/2014, in HCM, it was recorded that 6670 apartments were offered, increased 117.8% from the previous quarter and 150.2% over the same period last year. For the whole 2014, it was sated that 60% of 14 807 apartments from 37 projects were offered while this figure was 47% in Hanoi of total 16,200 units from 31 projects.

In terms of price, the projects inside the city and surrounding areas with developed infrastructure continue to attract buyers and tends to keep the price high. The average selling price luxury apartments in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are in the range of US $ 1500-1700 / m2, apartment Range US $ 1,000 / m2, the budget - US $ 700 / m2.

The companies with foreign investors are allowed to sublet the property which has been leased or acquire buildings which has been built. This contributes to dynamic of office properties in Vietnam. According to CBRE’s report, in 2014, many office buildings have adopted methods of long-term lease or buy off the area. In 2015, this trend will be more popular in terms of office building.

In the segment of real estate retail, restructuring the dynamics of retail businesses such as Parkson Hanoi Co. and the close of Parkson shopping center in Keangnam Landmark Tower Complex (Hanoi) showed very strong pressure this segment due to increase in supply and competition. With more than 90 million people, Vietnam is a leading nations in the Asia - Pacific region in terms of growth of retail market (9.3% versus 6.3% in Hong Kong, 4.5 1.7% of Malaysia and Singapore). Thus, the segment of retail market is still promising.

A series of big brand to expand the retail network such as as Aeon Group (Japan) plans to open 20 hypermarkets in Vietnam. Vinmart plans to build 9 shopping center, 100 supermarkets and 1,000 Vinmart convenience stores in 2017. Lotte Group (Korea) announced that it would open 60 supermarkets in Vietnam in 2020...

However, in 2015, the new game will be very intensed. According to the CBRE, in 2015-2016, the market will welcome nearly 800.000m2 retail space from 24 projects. Therefore, retailer market will be faced a new challenges. Rising operating costs, the development of electronic commerce and improved knowledge of consumer in purchase decision will be the factors that led to high level of market competition.

Also in 2015-2016, villa projects seem to become very attractive investment in Vietnam. In 2016, Vingroup will launch the resort in Da Nang, Nha Trang, Quy Nhon, PhuQuoc that combines financial investment to attract investors. Especially, at the beginning of March, the Group will launch VingroupVinpearl Resort & Villas project in Long Beach - Nha Trang.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

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Trade Promotion in The Integration Period

  In the past 5 years from 2011 to 2015, trade promotion activities at home and abroad have achieved much progress, contributing significantly to the growth of the country's export. However, when Vietnam integrates deeper into the world market, the role of trade promotion will become more significant.

In recent years, trade promotion has been implemented uniformly and efficiently, maximizes the resources at home and abroad to support the businesses and contribute to the economic and social development of the country.

Typical is the national trade promotion program. With the support from the program, the presence of Vietnam export products in many traditional markets such as the US, EU, China, Japan, South Korea is expanding. At the same time, the program has supported the business to come back to such markets as Russia and Eastern Europe, strengthening the operation in Myanmar, Laos, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America...

According to statistics, the activities of the national trade promotion program in the period of 2010 - 2014 have attracted the participation of more than 21,000 businesses. In particular, the companies have directly deal and signed contracts with a total contract value of export goods and sales reached nearly 5.3 billion USD and more than 1,000 billion VND.

The participation in the multilateral free trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and bilateral agreements, in addition to the benefits that it can bring to the export of strategic goods Vietnam, the domestic manufacturing sector is forecasted to face with negative impacts if there are no timely and appropriate measures to support.

In order to effectively effectively support companies and take advantage of the opportunities offered by the new generation FTAs, Ministry of Industry and Trade has directed the relevant agencies to deploy more practical trade promotion activities, focusing on activities to tapping and opening the markets that Vietnam has signed and under FTA negotiation.

In particular, focus on supporting the export promotion in overseas market with such activities as: Organize and participate in specialized trade fair abroad, organize trade delegations to help maintain export turnover in the key markets, expand export market in new and potential markets.

Promote export through activities organized right in Vietnam: Organize international exhibition in Vietnam; organize international conference; organize and welcome the foreign delegations to Vietnam; mobilize the commercial counselors in countries around the world to introduce business opportunities, connect businesses and provide updated market information for businesses.

Coordinating agencies, related organizations and multinational corporations bring Vietnamese goods to international supermarkets: Organize Vietnam goods week in supermarket system in France, Japan and Korea...

Improve the performance of the trade promotion office that have been established in the United States and China; completing the establishment of trade promotion offices in China; finishing the scheme to set up trade promotion office in foreign country.

In order for the trade promotion activities to operate effectively and bring good opportunities for businesses, apart from the support of the State, companies need to improve technological content, added value to their goods, building and developing brands and participate in global supply chains.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

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Textile Industry in Vietnam

  Vietnam textile industry for many years has always been one of the major export sectors of Vietnam. With the development in technology, the number of skilled worker is growing along with many preferential policies from the Government, the textile industry has obtained encouraging results, creating the value of goods, ensuring domestic demand and export.

1.Overview of the industry

According to the General Department of Customs, in 2014, the value of exports textiles reached 20.91 billion dollars, increasing 16.6% compared to 2013. The value of textile exported was the second largest export industry in Vietnam.

Vietnam's textile industry has a high production capacity: 4,424 enterprises (as of 31/12/2013) with 2.5 million workers, growth rate of 14% annually. There are 1.2% of enterprises reaching $100 million export revenue, 3.25% of them reaching 50 million and 30% reaching over $1 million. There been several textile products including 8000 tons of cotton fiber, yarn 900 thousand tons, 1.5 billion m2 fabric. Localization ratio of the whole industry was 50% in 2014.

Export capacity of the textile industry is also very impressive. Particularly in 2014, the export value reached 20.91 billion US dollars, accounting for nearly 14% of total turnover exporting ones in the country­­ - No. 1 export industry of Vietnam until 2012, No. 2 in 2013 onwards (after the mobile phone). Vietnam is the 4^th largest exporting country, accounting for 4.92% of global textile exports in 2014, after China, Bangladesh, Italy.

Vietnam's textile sector has yet to master generating raw material. The high-quality raw material required depends heavily on importing (around 60-70%). Mainly imported raw materials are from China, Taiwan and Korea. Vietnam's textile industry has currently imported 90% of raw cotton, 100% synthetic fibre and 80% cotton fabric.

According to research by the Ministry of Labour, every $1 billion of Vietnam textile export created extra 250,000 jobs. Currently, Vietnam has a population of over 90 million people which 49% of the population of working age worked in the textile industry. Moreover, the labour cost in Vietnam is relatively low compared to many countries in the region. The advantage of the lower labour cost will resulted in lower production cost, thus being price competitive. However, in this sector, there is a shortage of skilled labour leading to difficulties to develop the industry.

2.Opportunities for textile industry

TPP is a great opportunity for many industries including textile. According to economic experts, TPP will have a huge influence in the global textile industry. TPP opens investment opportunities (FDI) into developing materials and supporting industries. When joining the TPP, textile tax rate reduced to 0% which indicates a huge profits for Vietnam's textile sector.

Besides, FTAs (The free trade agreements) also opens up further export opportunities for Vietnam’s textile industry to the market European Union, Korea, Asian Economic Union - Europe ...  Vietnam will benefit from free tariff agreement from EU . Besides, the Vietnamese enterprises will be supported in terms of access to high technology from other countries, thus enhancing value of products.

3.Challenges

Other than opportunities, the textile industry will be facing many challenges. The domestic textile enterprises are mainly operating in small and medium scale with low capital investment and financial resources, limited technology, equipment and innovation capabilities. This lead to inability to achieve economic efficiency and compete with other countries. After all trade agreements take effect, Vietnam’s textile industry must meet strict rules and requirements such as origination of raw material (fabric). Meanwhile, most of raw materials (fabrics) was imported from other countries such as China (not a member of TPP). Therefore, if Vietnamese enterprises do not use raw materials from Vietnam or other countries in the TPP, it will be difficult for them to enjoy free tariff when exporting to the US and other countries in the TPP. Therefore, Vietnamese enterprises are highly recommended to learn about TPP and other free trade agreements. Besides, Vietnamese enterprises should prepare for qualified workforce, equipment and new technologies and intellectual property. The state and agencies functions have created specific guidance on the provisions of the tax, customs to help Vietnamese enterprises to utilise export opportunities with the advantages of tariff.

Finding the right business partner in Vietnam is also important. We recommend doing research on the reputation of the company and individual shareholders, corporate or individual, gathering publicly available company information, and performing background checks on key personnel to find potential risks in cooperation. Working with a reliable partner can help achieve economic benefits, saving time and money in business.

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