Indochina, VinaCapital seek property deals in Vietnam

VinaCapital, Vietnam’s biggest fund manager, is in talks with investors to start its second real-estate fund early next year, CEO Don Lam was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.
 
In the mean time, Rick Mayo- Smith, co-chairman of Indochina Capital - Vietnam ’s third biggest investment firm - said that Indochina Capital plans to increase the size of its property fund to between 400 million USD and 500 million USD when it closes in the first half of next year, from the 155 million USD it raised in July.
 
High interest rates and limitations on bank lending have forced smaller developers to delay projects or sell assets to raise money. This has opened up opportunities for Vietnam’s fund managers who say there is still demand for apartments, offices, hotels and malls as the country continues to grow at the fastest pace among Southeast Asia ’s six biggest economies, Bloomberg reported.
 
“The opportunities have never been better,” Mayo-Smith was quoted as saying in a November 18 interview. “A number of projects have halted in Vietnam due to lack of financing; we see people bringing us projects and land where they need investors or they want to sell to finance some of their other projects.”