Mekong Capital-Backed F88 Plans Vietnam Listing as Early as July

(Bloomberg) - Mekong Capital Ltd.-backed F88 Co. plans to list its shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market, or UpCom, as early as July and start trading on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange in two years, Phung Anh Tuan, chairman and chief executive officer, said in an interview.

F88 previously planned to list on the UpCom in 2023 and on the Ho Chi Minh City exchange in 2024. F88 meets requirements to be a public company, Tuan said.

The Hanoi-based company, which offers small loans primarily backed by vehicles as collateral and provides financial services such as insurance and money transfers, plans to list shares on the Ho Chi Minh City stock bourse in early 2027 with an expected market capitalization of around $1 billion, according to Tuan. “We’re committed to this goal, subject to market conditions,” Tuan said. “We believe the market will see the value of our company and offer a fair price.”

Read more: Mekong Capital-Backed F88 Sees $1 Billion Value at 2024 Listing

The company postponed its earlier listing plans after some F88 branches were investigated by police for allegedly threatening borrowers and appropriating property, news website VnExpress reported in March 2023. Six former F88 employees were sentenced to at least six months in jail after being convicted of sending threatening messages to customers, VnExpress reported last July.

F88 may sell shares to the public to raise capital prior to the Ho Chi Minh City bourse listing, he said. The company expects to add a strategic investor next year, Tuan said, without providing further details. In addition to Mekong Capital, the company has Granite Oak Advisors Ltd. and Vietnam-Oman Investment Fund as major investors.

The company targets revenue and profit to increase more than 40% each this year, Tuan said. In 2024, it had after-tax profit of 351 billion dong ($13.5 million), its highest ever. F88 plans to increase its nationwide stores to 888 this year from 868 at the end of 2024, the CEO said.

F88 expects profit and revenue to increase at least 30% each per year in the next five years, Tuan said. Only about 20% of Vietnamese have access to credit, which provides the company with plenty of growth opportunities, he added.

F88 is looking to raise more than 700 billion dong this year by issuing bonds and is in the process of obtaining a loan with an international bank, Tuan said, without giving details. The listing will help F88 diversify funding sources at lower costs, he said.

F88’s credit rating outlook was upgraded to positive from stable last month by FiinRatings, a Vietnam credit rating agency, which said the company is “well-positioned” financially compared to industry peers. In 2024, F88 recorded loan balance growth of 22.7%, “significantly outperforming” the consumer finance industry average of 3.84%, according to FiinRatings’ report. The company has increased revenue diversification, with insurance services revenue growing 11.8%, contributing to 9.5% of total revenue, the agency said.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Nguyen Kieu Giang in Hanoi at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Catherine Ngai at [email protected]

John Boudreau