What’s going on?

• Vietnam’s VNG Corp is considering going public in the US through SPAC.

Founded in 2004 as a gaming firm, VNG’s products reach over 80m users. Its gaming arm develops and publishes its own titles and local versions of international hits such as PUBG Mobile. It also runs messaging app Zalo, e-wallet ZaloPay, cloud computing and other communications services.

According to VNG’s website

What does this mean?

• VNG is said to be working with financial advisers to hold discussions with SPACs for a potential deal. The potential transaction could value VNG at US$2b to US$3b, which is still private.
• Discussions are ongoing and VNG could decide to pursue other funding options. Comments from VNG are still denied to be made.
• VNG has been considering a potential Nasdaq listing since at least 2017 (Bloomberg News reported).

Why should I care?

Zooming out: American dream for SEA startups

If this really happens, VNG would be another SEA firm seeking US listings through SPAC.

• PropertyGuru (Singaporean online real estate firm) agreed to a US$1.8b SPAC deal in July 2021;
• Traveloka (Indonesian) is in talks to raise funds for a SPAC listing (Bloomberg News reported).

Content source: The Business Times. (2021) GIC-backed Vietnam tech firm considers US$3b SPAC merger. Available at: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/garage/gic-backed-vietnam-tech-firm-considers-us3b-spac-merger [Accessed on Aug 17, 2021]