The Ho Chi Minh City-based firm has launched what it says is Vietnam's first Ucits fund. It is mulling partnering with firms to offer third-party funds on its Ucits platform.
The recent change in tack comes amid other plans to liberalise Vietnam's financial markets. Meanwhile, the first locally listed exchange-traded funds are in the pipeline.
Frontier Investment & Development Partners is less upbeat than its former partner about the outlook for Vietnam and is raising a separate fund of its own.
Foreign investors must have exit strategies at all times to guard against the sudden risk of market liquidity grinding to a halt, says a fund manager in Ho Chi Minh City.
It is taking longer than planned for Vietnam's Dragon Capital to hit $50 million for its new private equity fund. Meanwhile, it is eyeing microfinance and plans to use Ucits to sell into Europe.
The Vietnamese firm will establish open-ended funds this year through its local subsidiary, as foreign asset managers await approval to do so, amid a raft of other reforms.
VinaCapital chairman Horst Geicke and his wife, Katherine Yip-Geicke, are locked in a dispute over the ownership of the Vietnam-based fund management company.
The founders of VinaCapital say open-ended funds and higher foreign ownership limits may arrive next year in Vietnam, after the Communist Party congress in January.
Raising the country's foreign-ownership limits would attract more investment from offshore and provide local banks with greater access to foreign expertise, say fund managers.