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Masan workers on a production line. MSN stocks hit ceiling prices on Thursday, backing market reversal. — Photo vietnambiz.vn The market reversed the downward trend in the morning to end slightly higher in a late-session rally on Thursday. As bulls and bears entered a tug-of-war, the benchmark VN-Index on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) rose by 0.88 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 1,241.64 points. The market’s breadth stood considerably negative as advancers were dwarfed by decliners. Notably, 294 stocks advanced while 519 declined. The market’s liquidity was low with only 460 million stocks traded on the southern bourse, equivalent to around VND11.6 trillion (US$502 million). Buying forces were not strong enough to lift blue chips. The 30 biggest stock tracker VN30-Index lost 2.86 points, or 0.22 per cent, to end at 1,283.55 points. In the basket, decliners outnumbered advancers by 18 to eight. Among ten stocks propping up the market, Masan Group (MSN) was the … [Read more...] about Market edges up slightly due to bull-bear tug of war

Riccardo Verzella Senior associate (left) and Ho Ngoc Diep Legal advisor, D’Andrea & Partners Legal Counsel Some new innovations of the aforesaid regulations are more relevant compared to the previous FDI regime, and certain aspects may be further optimised with the aim of improving the ease of doing business in Vietnam for overseas investors. Market access rules were significantly improved under the amended LoI. Before its implementation, based on the previous law, the allowed business fields for foreign investors were only those expressly referred to in a permitted list as mentioned therein. Nevertheless, Vietnam has switched to the so-called “negative list” approach with the LoI: hence, currently, foreign investors may perform all the business activities not included in the Negative List for Market Access for Foreign Investors without differentiation from domestic investors. This innovation indeed removes uncertainty for foreign investors, widens their business … [Read more...] about Crafting complete enterprise and investment laws

The deal value in Vietnam by Japanese investors last year was more than triple the figure of 2020. Why has there been a sharp increase in Japanese mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals? Masataka “Sam” Yoshida, head of the Cross-border Division of RECOF Corporation and CEO of RECOF Vietnam Co., Ltd This rise was due to an exceptional deal done by SMBC Consumer Finance, in the amount of nearly $1.38 billion, which acquired FE Credit from VP Bank. In fact, there have been several relatively big deals by Japanese investors ranging from $50-100 million every two years during the last 10 years – however, this one was by far the largest. Apart from this one, we recognise that most of the Japanese-related deals were around $5-30 million in size, which did not show any big difference from before 2020. What is M&A activity like so far in 2022 for Japanese groups here? Despite the aforementioned mega deal by SMBC, most Japanese investors had to wait until travel … [Read more...] about Japanese M&A in Vietnam on a steady track to bigger deals

Ho Chi Minh City, May 17, 2022, Touchstone Partners today announced that it participated in Eureka Robotics’ recently closed pre-Series A round of funding, which raised US$4.25 million from a handful of investors. In this fundraising round, Touchstone joins lead investor The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners (UTEC) and existing investor ATEQ. Eureka Robotics is a Singapore-based start-up which develops software and systems to automate tasks that require simultaneously High Accuracy and High Agility (HA-HA) across a range of industries, including optics, electronics, and automotive. The company has deployed robots and systems in factories in Singapore, China and Japan. Eureka Robotics was founded in 2018. The company plans to use the new capital raised to expand its operations beyond Singapore where it is headquartered and Paris, France, where it maintains an R&D office, including establishing an office in Vietnam in Hanoi in July 2022. It initially plans to … [Read more...] about Touchstone Partners invests in Eureka Robotics