Foreign investment activities in Vietnam

Foreign investors preparing for inspections

Five foreign-invested real estate enterprises have been preparing dossiers and evidence to prove their financial activities are quite healthy, since a recent announcement by the Ministry of Finance revealed that they would be inspected within this July.

Talking with VIR last week in Ho Chi Minh City, a source of Keppel Land Watco II, one of the five companies on the list, stated that the company understands that the inspection by Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) is part of the MoF’s periodic review of joint-venture entities in which Vietnamese state capital is invested.

“To our knowledge, Keppel Land Watco II complies with all applicable laws and regulations,” said the source. “We will work closely with the relevant authorities on this routine inspection.”

The other companies under inspection include Somerset Grand Hanoi, G.V.C Development Ltd., Indochine Park Tower, and Global Toserco Co., Ltd. All of these are large real estate developers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

A public relations representative of Ascott Ltd., the developer of Somerset Grand Hanoi, confirmed that the company had completed all necessary measures to meet the requests from the inspection team. “The inspection into our company has just been completed and the final results show that we have obeyed all government regulations,” the representative for Ascott Ltd. told VIR. “No problems or violations were found in our company during this inspection.”

Two weeks prior, the MoF sent a document to the Ministry of Planning and Investment detailing the inspection into financial mechanisms and policy implementation in these five foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) in July. The MoF will look into the value of contributed capital for each party, as well as the profits from the state investment capital within these FIEs. The preservation of the state capital in economic organisations, capital and project transfers, and these FIEs’ observation of Vietnam’s tax laws will also be determined.

Keppel Land Watco Co., Ltd. is a joint venture between Singapore’s Keppel Land, Southern Water Transport Corporation, and Saigon Real Estate Corporation (RESCO). This joint venture is the developer of Saigon Centre, a premium project of office space for lease along with a shopping centre tower complex, located in District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City. In 2017, Keppel Land spent VND845.9 billion ($37.3 million) buying an additional 16 per cent stake in Keppel Land Watco (from I to V), the joint-venture entities for Saigon Centre, through its subsidiary Krystal Investments Pte., Ltd. This transaction enabled Keppel Land to raise its stakes in phases 1 and 2 of the Saigon Centre project from 45.3 to 53.5 per cent, and to raise its stake in the two next phases of the project from 68 to 76.2 per cent.

Somerset Grand Hanoi is the property developed by Ascott Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore’s CapitaLand Ltd.

G.V.C Development Ltd. started operating in Vietnam in May 1998 and is an affiliate company of Housing Development Real-Estate JSC.

Indochine Park Tower is a joint venture between RESCO and Hong Kong’s AF Investments Ltd.

Global Toserco was established by Hanoi Toserco JSC, which is the owner of Pullman Hanoi Hotel, and PT Global Metropolitan, a joint venture of Ciputra Group, Metrolitan Group, and Praidha Ltd.

Vietnam Investment Review