Credits By: Teach Is Asia
The first Vietnamese technology business to apply for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, VNG, a growing online startup, has started applying for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States. This is a significant milestone. This action adds to the growing list of businesses broadening their portfolios through anticipated initial public offerings (IPOs), taking advantage of the favorable market attitude.
VNG plans to offer almost 22 million shares in this IPO. A later filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission will provide the recommended price range for these shares. Le Hong Minh and Vuong Quang Khai, the company’s founders, will continue to exercise authority over VNG, according to its filing from last Wednesday. The operating company in Vietnam, VNG Corp., will be 49% controlled by VNG.
VNG Corp., formerly known as Vinagame, first appeared on the market in 2004 as a publisher of video games. It developed and published its games in addition to localized editions of big-name titles. By extending its offerings, VNG currently offers mobile payments, news portals, texting, music sharing, and video streaming. Since at least 2017, the possibility of going public in the US has been under consideration.
Since 2020, VNG’s Zalo messaging software has surpassed Meta Platform Inc.’s Facebook Messenger as Vietnam’s most popular chat service. Zalo boasts 75 million active users each month.
The founders of VNG wrote to prospective investors in a letter in the prospectus, saying, “We were born after the war, in a country that had won peace and unity, but was still battling underdevelopment and isolation… In the middle of the 1990s, when the Internet arrived in Vietnam, the world miraculously and abruptly opened the door for us.
Notably, Vinfast Auto Ltd., a Vietnamese producer of electric vehicles, just entered the US market before VNG’s IPO. The corporation was valued at $23 billion after merging with the blank-check business Black Spade Acquisition Co.
If VNG’s listing goes through, it will give the IPO market momentum after briefly warming up. According to reports from Bloomberg News, well-known companies like Arm Holdings Ltd., a chip designer that plans to go public in September, and organizations like Instacart Inc., Klaviyo, and Birkenstock are all getting ready for initial public offerings.
While striving to increase profits through ventures in artificial intelligence and cloud computing, VNG sees gaming as the driving force behind its global expansion strategies. Le Hong Minh, the CEO of the gaming division VNGGames, stated that the corporation runs at least nine studio games abroad, with locations in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Taipei, and China.
Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley, UBS Group AG, and Bank of America Corp. led the IPO process. VNG expects to list its Nasdaq Global Select Market shares with the VNG ticker.
