VNG to list in US when ‘market is favourable’: CEO

The CEO of Vietnamese internet firm VNG told AFP Friday that the company would list in the United States when the market is favourable, months after filing for an initial public offering.

Founded in 2004, VNG operates a wide range of services, including music streaming, mobile payment, online games and messaging.

Its Zalo messaging platform is one of the most popular in the country, with 75 million monthly active users.

The company filed for an IPO in August, shortly after Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast made its debut in New York.

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However, the listing was reportedly delayed due to difficult market conditions.

In an interview with AFP on Friday, Le Hong Minh, VNG’s co-founder and CEO, declined to say when exactly VNG would list on the Nasdaq.

“I hope when the market is favourable,” he said.

Minh told AFP that the company would not, unlike VinFast, list via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), introduced to public markets with the purpose of merging with an operating company.

VNG plans to sell nearly 22 million shares in the IPO, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, with the proposed price range not yet set.

The company, headquartered in business capital Ho Chi Minh City, is one of Vietnam’s leading game publishers and also has an office in Thailand.

It has ambitious plans to further expand into Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

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In a statement to potential investors, founders Minh and Vuong Quang Khai wrote: “We were born after the war, in a nation that had found peace and unity, but was still struggling with underdevelopment and isolation.

“Little did we know how lucky we were when the internet arrived in Vietnam in the middle of the 1990s. The world magically and suddenly opened the door for us.”

VNG counts Chinese internet giant Tencent and Singapore state investor Temasek among its shareholders.

© Agence France-Presse