Singapore’s UOB Asset Management Ltd. Is acquiring VAM Vietnam Fund Management Joint Stock Company as it moves to expand in Southeast Asia, just months after completing the purchase of a stake in an Indonesian asset manager.
It will first buy 24.53% of VAM Vietnam from a co-founder, Nguyen Xuan Minh, a deal that is pending approvals from Singapore and Vietnam regulators, according to a December 3 filing to the Singapore Exchange by United Overseas Bank, the parent company of UOB Asset Management.
Once it gets the regulatory green light, it will purchase the rest of the stake in VAM Vietnam from the other shareholders.
The entire deal, to be paid in cash, will cost the Singapore firm 113.68 billion Vietnamese dong (US$4.91 million).
Ho Chi Minh-based VAM Vietnam had 114 billion dong of assets under management as of end-October 2019.
"The acquisition will further strengthen [UOB Asset Management’s] Asian franchise and presence,” United Overseas Bank says.
This September, the company completed buying 75% of Indonesia’s PT PG Asset Management for S$2.25 million ($1.65 million), a deal that was announced in November 2018.
The company also operates in Malaysia and Thailand and, outside of Southeast Asia, in Taiwan.
UOB Asset Management had S$35.1 billion of assets under management at the end of 2018, according to figures on its website.