Singapore state investor Temasek has invested about $29 million in additional shares of Vietnamese Internet major VNG Corporation to own 6.35 per cent of the company’s voting shares.
Seletar Investments, a unit under the umbrella of Temasek, completed the transaction on March 4, as per a regulatory filing by VNG. Specifically, Seletar purchased an additional 355,820 VNG treasury stocks to own a total of 1.74 million shares, equivalent to a 6.35 per cent interest.
The transaction price was VND1.86 million ($80.8) apiece, translating into a deal value of $29 million.
In January, the Vietnamese firm announced its private placement plan through which it expected to raise at least $15.6 million. Proceeds from the deal was said to expand VNG’s presence in local and overseas markets as well as for future investments.
In September 2018, for the first time, VNG released information about its foreign shareholders that included Goldman Sachs, GIC and two British Virgin Island-domiciled investors rumoured to be Chinese giant Tencent’s affiliates. These four shareholders collectively held 43.42 per cent of VNG at the time of the announcement.
Therefore, Temasek started to invest in VNG after September 2018. The latest financing valued the Vietnamese unicorn at $2.2 billion, according to local media estimate.
VNG was spotted as a unicorn (a tech company with valuation of at least $1 billion) in a 2014 World Startup Report, a year earlier than NYSE-listed Sea Limited.
VNG signed a memorandum of understanding with Nasdaq to list its shares. VNG then said it would take about two years for the IPO transaction to materialise. If completed, it would be Vietnam’s first overseas listing.
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Vietnam’s VNG mulls $15.6m private placement in first quarter of 2019
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