Vietnam’s lacklustre startup IPO market seeks to pick up speed amid growing regional competition

[HANOI] DESPITE the twin challenges of a global slowdown of venture funding and a dismal local initial public offering (IPO) market, VNG Corp – Vietnam’s first recognised unicorn – began selling 35.8 million shares to the public in early-January at 240,000 dong (S$13.50) per share. 

That gave the gaming company a market capitalisation of US$364 million, a sixth of the US$2.2 billion valuation recorded in the financing round led by Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings in 2019.

The first week of the listing went by without a single transaction of its shares on the local bourse because there weren’t any selling orders. It’s quite different from how the firm and its shareholders had envisioned things to turn out, especially as VNG once harboured ambitions to launch its IPO abroad.