A regional perspective on Vietnam

BDA Partners Managing Partner Paul DiGiacomo was invited to be the keynote speaker at the VinaCapital Vietnam Investor Conference in Ho Chi Minh City in early October 2023. Having lived in Asia for 25 years and been active in Vietnam for the past 15 years, Paul has a unique perspective on the drivers and fundamentals of Vietnam’s investment landscape.

5 takeaways from the keynote speech

1. BDA is bullish on Vietnam

- - - 15+ years active in the market
    - Team of 10 M&A bankers
    - Investing opportunistically into early-stage opportunities through our partners’ fund

2. Vietnam has attractive investment fundamentals, supported by:

- - - A young and dynamic population
    - An entrepreneurial and East Asian culture
    - A stable socioeconomic and political structure
    - Solidly moving up the manufacturing value chain to higher value added areas

3. External macroeconomic conditions that support Vietnam’s growth include:

- - - Strong FDI trends
    - US/China decoupling and global supply chain reorganizations
    - Increasingly strong US support for economic success

4. Risks to Vietnam’s growth are:

- - - Climate change and in particular rising sea levels
    - The potential for deglobalization to proceed more aggressively
    - Infrastructure insufficiency

5. The future is bright in Vietnam. By 2030 Vietnam will have:

- - - 36 million people in the middle class….
    - …distributed across the country, with 25+ cites each having a middle-class population in excess of 250,000
    - Much greater global supply chain integration in high valued-added products such as electronics and semiconductors

BDA Partners has been active in Vietnam for over 15 years. We received our first investment banking mandate in 2007 and established an office in Ho Chi Minh in 2011. We now have a team of 10 bankers on the ground working across multiple sectors.