VN lender F88 gears up for domestic IPO with $50m raise (Update)

Photo credit: F88

Update (March 2, 6:57 pm): This article was updated to include information from F88’s official release.

Vietnamese lender F88 has secured at least US$50 million, mainly from two investment funds, ahead of a potential domestic IPO next year.

The funds are Vietnam-Oman Investment Fund (VOI), a joint venture between Oman Investment Authority and State Capital Investment Corporation of Vietnam, and Mekong Enterprise Fund IV (MEF IV), a private equity fund that focuses on consumer-driven businesses in Vietnam.

It will invest the new capital in data analytics and data science, as well as acquiring new customers and onboarding new talent.

F88 offers a range of financial services, including insurance, money transfers, and small loans backed by vehicles as collateral. It has more than 800 stores and point-of-sales across the country, and plans to increase them to 1,700 by 2025.

In November 2022, the company secured US$60 million in loans from Lending Ark and Lendable to grow its loan book, among others.

The firm aims to issue about US$336 million of bonds to the public in 2023 after getting approval from the State Securities Commission. F88 will then start trading shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM), which is the board for firms not yet listed on the Hanoi Stock Exchange.

The company also targets a market value of roughly US$1 billion for a planned official listing on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange in 2024.

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