According to two sources cited by Reuters on Thursday, the Vietnam-based internet company VNG Corp plans to raise $150 million through a listing on the US stock market.
The announcement followed VinFast, an electric vehicle manufacturer based in Vietnam,’s recent successful US launch. Following its US debut earlier this month, VinFast’s stock price has skyrocketed. The stock is prone to volatility because there are so few publicly traded shares and because Pham Nhat Vuong, the company’s founder and the richest man in Vietnam, owns 99 percent of the company.
The increase in VinFast’s stock price could give other Southeast Asian companies looking to go public in the US more momentum, according to the report.
VNG Ltd. has submitted a Form F-1 registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said in a statement. Through an initial public offering (IPO), VNG Ltd plans to list its Class A ordinary shares on the NASDAQ Global Select Market with the ticker symbol “VNG.”
“The Form F-1 registration statement is subject to completion and has not yet been declared effective by the SEC,” VNG said.
Underwriters for the IPO include Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, UBS Securities LLC, and BofA Securities, Inc. The potential offering’s size and price range have not yet been decided.
VNG, a five-person start-up that became Vietnam’s first tech unicorn and the country’s largest homegrown digital ecosystem in 2014, has become ingrained in users’ daily lives. According to Newzoo and F&S, VNG is the top mobile game publisher in Vietnam with plans to go global. Zalo, the country’s top messaging app, has 75 million active monthly users and is run by VNG.
The company, which has its headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City, also produces Zing MP3, which F&S ranks as the top music streaming service in Vietnam with more than 28 million monthly active users, and ZaloPay, which it claims is the country’s fastest-growing mobile payment app.
