Web startup VNG filed for an preliminary public providing within the US, making it the primary Vietnamese expertise firm to hunt a list in New York and including to a diversifying roster of firms planning listings as fairness markets thaw.
VNG, which plans to supply nearly 22 million shares within the IPO, will set a proposed value vary in a later submitting with the US Securities and Change Fee. It mentioned in its submitting Wednesday that VNG will proceed to be managed by its founders, Le Hong Minh and Vuong Quang Khai. VNG will personal 49% of VNG Corp., the Vietnamese working firm.
Previously often called Vinagame, VNG Corp. had its begin as a recreation writer in 2004. It develops and publishes its personal titles in addition to native variations of worldwide hits, and has progressively expanded to a variety of companies, reminiscent of music sharing, video streaming, messaging, a information portal and cell funds. It has been exploring going public within the US since no less than 2017.
Its messaging app, Zalo, has gained over Meta Platform Inc.’s Fb Messenger to turn out to be the most-used chatting platform in Vietnam since 2020. Zalo has 75 million month-to-month lively customers, based on a assertion.
“We had been born after the warfare, in a nation that had discovered peace and unity, however was nonetheless fighting underdevelopment and isolation,” VNG’s founders mentioned in a letter to buyers included within the prospectus. “Little did we all know how fortunate we had been when the Web arrived in Vietnam in the course of the Nineties. The world magically and all of a sudden opened the door for us.”
VNG Ltd.’s IPO would comply with this month’s US debut of Vietnamese electric-vehicle maker Vinfast Auto Ltd. after it accomplished a merger with blank-check firm Black Spade Acquisition Co. in a deal valuing it at $23 billion.
A list by VNG would add momentum to an IPO market that has been warming in suits and begins. Chip designer Arm Holdings Ltd., majority owned by SoftBank Group Corp., is planning to go public in September in what can be the yr’s greatest IPO. San Francisco-based grocery supply agency Instacart Inc. and advertising and marketing, knowledge automation supplier Klaviyo and footwear maker Birkenstock are additionally making ready to file for IPOs, Bloomberg Information has reported.
VNG sees video games because the spearhead of its world enlargement plans whereas additionally in search of so as to add income from synthetic intelligence and cloud computing merchandise, Minh, the corporate’s chief government officer, mentioned in an interview final yr. The gaming arm VNGGames has no less than 9 studio video games overseas together with Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Taipei and China.
The providing is being led by Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley, UBS Group AG and Financial institution of America Corp. The corporate plans for its shares to commerce on the Nasdaq International Choose Market beneath the image VNG.
