Oman's State General Reserve Fund venture eyes investments in Vietnam

9/9/2015 2:48:09 PM

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat-

Oman's State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) through its joint venture company Vietnam Oman Investment (VOI) is planning to increase investments in water-supply projects highways and the Hai Phong Port in Vietnam.

According to Vietnamese media reports SGRF through VOI recently signed an agreement of strategic cooperation

for water infrastructure investment in Vietnam with Manila Water Co and Saigon Water Infrastructure Corporation (SII) a subsidiary of HCM City Infrastructure Investment JSC (CII).

Under the agreement VOI is to invest in a number of SII joint projects such as highway or safe water supply projects as reported by the Viet Nam News (VNS) English daily. Most of the projects will be in or around Ho Chi Minh City.

'SGRF is very keen to enhance and extract value from sectors that play a vital role in Vietnam's growth story' Abdullah al Harthy director at VOI said as quoted by VNS.

'We have been confidently working with CII on a number of projects with high impact on the economic and social development of Vietnam. In particular CII Manila Water Co and we all find that there is an urgent need and a huge economic value for the new water network development in areas that the people of Vietnam have limited access to clean water' Harthy said.

Media reports also say that Oman' sovereign fund could also become a strategic investor in Vietnam's Hai Phong Port according to Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) a state-owned company that currently runs the port.

According to Vinalines there are currently three potential strategic investors that can acquire a strategic stake in Hai Phong Port from the state including SGRF Vietinbank and Vingroup. Vinalines said SGRF has better chance in this deal as the fund has experience in managing a seaport.

If SGRF becomes Hai Phong Port's strategic partner the fund will provide the port US$2mn over three years on human training and technical support to make the port an important link in the global seaport network Nguyen Canh Tinh deputy director general of Vinalines was quoted as saying.

He said Vinalines always targets a strategic investor who is capable of providing the best support in terms of technology and technique to improve the management of Hai Phong Port. 'The strategic investor should have strong financial status not take loans from financial institutions to invest in the port and have three years of experience in running a deep-water seaport' Tinh said.

After selecting the strategic investor for the port Vinalines plans to directly negotiate the deal with the investor on the Hanoi Stock Exchange and sell Hai Phong Port's stake to the investor in the fourth quarter of this year.

VOI was founded in 2009 as a joint venture between SGRF and the State Capital Investment Corporation of Vietnam (SCIC). VOI mainly focus in private equity market of Vietnam investing in growth sectors that enjoy the competitive advantage in the country.

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