Seven years ago I was busy investing in Vietnam and since then the two funds I now have are performing respectably. To be honest I’d slightly forgotten about them.
Until this morning, when I read an informative piece in The Times about Vietnam Enterprise Investments (VEIL). Now I am better informed about VEIL.
“Among the earliest foreign entrepreneurs to see the country’s potential was Dominic Scriven, an Englishman, who emerged from the M&G investment group and the now-defunct London stockbroking firm Vickers da Costa to land in Vietnam in 1991. Scriven, who collects Vietnamese propaganda art and lives in a palatial riverside house, said: “After I drove from north to south, it was pretty obvious to me the general direction in which Vietnam would go, so I went to university in Hanoi to learn the language.”
The upshot in 1994 was Dragon Capital, now the country’s biggest private investor. Its banner fund is Vietnam Enterprise Investments Ltd (Veil), which soon gathered heavyweight followers. The biggest shareholders, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the family office of the Ikea founders, each have 15 per cent, along with City of London Investment Management.“ (The Times, 20th June 2025).
So my plan is to scale up my holding in VEIL as a long term investment, if someone my age has a long term. Be aware the shares are at a 17% discount and do not pay a dividend. Well, if IKEA and Bill Gates can do without a dividend so can I.
This video is more than twenty years old but, like Yes Minister, Is still relevant today.
Good to see that you are up and running again and with as wide a range of topics as ever.