The Viet Nam Opportunity Fund (VOF), managed by VinaCapital Group, invested US$11 million into the Orient Commercial Bank (OCB), owning nearly 5 per cent stake in the bank.

This investment is expected to help OCB diversify its services to targeted customer segments, including affluent individual clients and small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Andy Ho, chief investment officer of VincaCapital and managing director of the Viet Nam Opportunity Fund, told enternews.vn that this investment was a rare opportunity to own a meaningful stake in a bank that had high lending and earnings growth.

However, the details of the purchase price or the number of shares VOF has acquired from the deal have not been disclosed.

In August, VOF had also invested in Tasco Joint Stock Company and FPT Digital Retail Joint Stock Company, with $11 million being poured into each company.

Established in 1996, OCB currently ranks 17 out of 34 commercial banks in Viet Nam in terms of total assets. The bank has a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 per cent, and expects earnings growth of approximately 100 per cent and 30 per cent in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

The bank expects to list on the HCM Stock Exchange (HOSE) before the end of 2019. Late in June, OCB received approval from the central bank to increase its registered capital from VND4 trillion ($176 million) to nearly VND4.2 trillion via issuance of bonus shares.

VOF is an investment fund company founded by VinaCapital in 2003 with initial capital of $10 million. Now, this number has increased to more than $20 million. VOF’s profitability in the years from 2010 until now reached 42 per cent, contrary to the market loss of 18 per cent.

This year, VOF implemented 25 private equity (PE) transactions, with a total investment of $476.3 million.

Since the beginning of the year, VinaCapital has divested capital in a number of real estate companies, in order to restructure investment categories to suit the new situation. — VNS