HANOI (Reuters) -Vingroup has signed a memorandum of understanding with private equity fund JTA Investment Qatar to explore a potential investment of at least $1 billion in electric vehicle maker VinFast, the Vietnamese conglomerate said on Tuesday.
Nasdaq-listed VinFast is pursuing an aggressive but costly expansion strategy in Vietnam, where it can rely on a growing market of nearly 100 million people. The automaker also wants to expand abroad but has so far struggled to attract foreign buyers.
Its parent company Vingroup said the possible partnership with the Qatari investor could also extend to Vingroup’s hospitality business Vinpearl, which owns hotels and resorts in Vietnam.
“Under the MOU, the companies will engage in discussions to define their future collaboration in pursuing mutually beneficial objectives,” Vingroup said in a statement.
Amir Ali Salemi, founder and CEO of JTA Investment Qatar, also said in the statement that the collaboration would generate “mutually beneficial business opportunities”.
He did not elaborate and JTA Investment Qatar did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Doha-based JTA Investment Qatar, founded in 2010, is focused on investments in energy, education, tourism and lifestyle, according to its website. Last year, the fund partnered with a Vietnamese firm, T&T Group on a $1.3 billion sports complex in Hanoi, its website said.
VinFast listed on the Nasdaq in August 2023 when it said it had a number of strategic investors lined up, but no deals have been completed.
In October, it announced another MOU for a possible investment of at least $1 billion by a group of Emirati investors led by Emirates Driving Company, a provider of driving education services in Abu Dhabi.
No investment has yet been finalised following that MOU but the company is “actively engaged in ongoing negotiations with partners,” Vingroup said later on Tuesday.
The conglomerate’s founder, Pham Nhat Vuong, owned more than 97% of VinFast shares through companies he controlled, according to the latest filing to the U.S. regulator on ownership submitted in March last year.
He and the companies he controls poured $13.5 billion into the loss-making EV maker as of October in loans and grants, and promised another nearly $3.5 billion in November, Vingroup said in a statement in November.
(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen and Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Martin Petty, Jamie Freed and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
