Vietnam

I am not a high-frequency trader and on the rare occasions I tweak my portfolio I like to share with you. In January 2016 I invited you to Yield to Temptation.

I bought shares in Shell at £13.90, on a P/E ratio of 6.5 and yielding 8.5%. Now Shell is trading at £27.65 on a P/E ratio of 64.53 and yielding 5.14%. I have sold half my holding. I probably would have hung on a bit longer if I hadn’t been to the gulls’ eggs luncheon on Tuesday. I bumped into the father of my Godson and he enthused about investing in Vietnam.

It’s the third largest market in south east Asia with a young population, a growing middle class, and GDP growing by 6.46% a year on average since 2000. I have bought shares in VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunities Fund. It trades at a discount of 18% to NAV and yields 1%. It was launched in 2003 and has performed well; up 140% in the last five years and has assets of about £870 million.

Now for the bad news. The annual management fee is 1.5% and there is a performance fee if the fund makes more than 8% a year. This meant that total charges last year were 4.4%. On balance it’s a price worth paying to get exposure to such a high growth economy.