People: Snowball’s newest Vietnam venture

Fund manager Kevin Snowball, the former ABN AMRO luminary who co-launched the PXP Vietnam Fund nine years ago and also steers the same group’s Vietnam Equity Fund, is planning to have another crack at Indo-China as he plans to raise between $50 million (£31 million) and $100 million for a new PXP Vietnam Value fund.

At present, both Vietnam and Vietnam Equity are showing hefty losses since the boom year of 2007, but he argues that the present outlook for the economy and currency justifies an enthusiastic, if selective, approach.  

According to Snowball, Vietnam’s rapid recent economic growth – fuelled by a young, well-educated population, exports of food and raw materials and a move into manufacturing as yet focused on the cheaper end – has led to predictable inflation and currency pressures. He contends that the authorities are now tackling these issues and attracting direct investment from Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, as well as the USA.

Pointing out that PXP funds have avoided the handful of market-leading property, finance and conglomerate groups, whose inflated values provide a fig leaf for poor management, Snowball says the new Vietnam Value fund will
be open-ended, though with only a six-month window for subscriptions and redemptions, and will target small and medium-sized companies.