Finnish fund investing in Vietnam's property market hinh anh 1Illustrative image (Photo:VNA)

PYN Elite Fund (Non-UCITS), managed by Finnish PYN Fund Management Ltd, has been actively buying shares in many real estate companies in Vietnam with an eye to the future.

Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading-Service Real Estate Corp (HQC) told HCM Stock Exchange on October 15 that the fund had bought six million shares in the company on October 8-9, raising its stakes in Vietnam to almost 22 million shares, equivalent to 8.34 percent of its capital.

HQC is among the top 20 biggest real-estate companies on the Vietnamese stock exchange. It has a market value of more than 1.6 trillion VND (71.4 million USD).

In the past month, the fund has bought 4.2 million shares in Hoa Binh Construction & Real Estate Corp (HBC), lifting its holding to 7.7 million shares, or 10.3 percent of the company's capital.

It has also become big shareholders in many property firms, including Thang Long Investment Group (TIG), Duc Long Gia Lai Group (DLG), Construction Investment Corporation 3-2 (C32), Development Investment Construction Co (DIG) and Kinh Bac City Development Share Holding Corp (KBC) with stakes ranging between 5 percent to 13 percent.

"PYN Elite fund has defined Vietnam as its core market for the period 2013-2020," said fund manager Petri Heiskanen in his September report.

The fund's assets under management reached 265 million euro (303.2 million USD) by the end of September, of which 80 percent was in Vietnam and 11 percent in China.

The US Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates unchanged calmed anxiety in global markets, after which the focus shifted more from speculation back towards fundamentals, Heiskanen wrote in his report.

He said the weakening economic cycle of the banking and property sectors had weighted the market sentiment in the Vietnamese stock market, and "as a result, the stock prices are looking very attractive compared to the historical price to book ratios".

Vietnam's real estate market is picking up, driven by the Government's support policy as well as bright prospects once the Trans-Pacific Partnership becomes operational.

According to reports of some securities companies, if TPP takes effect, not only will exports grow but also foreign investment inflows are likely to benefit apartment and office leasing services.-VNA
VNA