Unique path and journey of attachment to Vietnam's capital market

Entrepreneur Dominic Scriven: A unique path and journey to Vietnam's capital market

At the beginning of the Year of the Dragon 2024, Mr. Dominic Scriven, Founder and Executive Chairman of Dragon Capital, shared about Dragon Capital's 30-year journey as well as his aspirations and plans for the Year of the Dragon, as the Fund's name suggests.

Mr. Dominic Scriven, Founder and Executive Chairman of Dragon Capital.

We met Dominic Scriven - a famous British man in the Vietnamese stock market, known as "the bridge builder bringing foreign capital into Vietnam", at his office in one of the most beautiful buildings in the center of District 1 (HCMC). Still in a very "artistic" style, with a stylish patterned shirt, high "ponytail", he shared his opinions, expectations about the market and the books he is reading...

Marking the 30th anniversary of its establishment, the year of the Dragon 2024 is certainly very important for Dragon Capital, sir?

The Year of the Dragon is very important to us, because the Fund was named Dragon Capital (“Dragon” in English means dragon - PV) and this year is Dragon Capital's 30th birthday.

Currently, Dragon Capital has 200 employees, including those born after the Company was established. This suddenly made me realize that I need to think about the future, about concepts such as “legacy”, “inheritance”, “responsibility”, or “imprint”. The New Year is also the time when we think about these things the most.

2022 is a very difficult year for us. 2023 is better, but there are still many challenges. In our business, the main goal is to retain investors, convince them to stay, and at the same time find new investors. Last year, we got some new investors, but some also left. So, 2024 can be said to be a challenging year, but overall, Dragon Capital is still quite good in terms of business performance.

Everyone hopes this year will be a year of recovery.

During 30 years of operation, what makes Dragon Capital different from other investment funds in the market?

Whether an investment fund is successful or not depends on whether it achieves its objectives. These objectives are measured through indicators. Our mission is to outperform all the indicators set by our clients.

Another thing to consider in investing is the long term. If someone wants to invest for a week or a month or two, they don’t need us. They can do it themselves. People who want to invest for their children’s future, for their education , for their parents’ pension or to manage their savings – those are the clients we focus on. And for that, we also have a lot of responsibility.

Long-term responsibility also means not chasing today's profits. It's great if you make a profit today, but it's actually more important to avoid tomorrow's risks and disasters.

During the Covid-19 period, there were many private investors participating in the stock market. However, the number of institutional investors has gradually decreased, not only in Vietnam, but also in emerging economies . How does Dragon Capital respond to the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities from this trend?

During the pandemic, people stayed at home to avoid the epidemic, temporarily stopped working; everyone had smartphones along with government support policies from everywhere. These factors promoted the investment trend, causing the number of individual investors participating in the market to increase sharply.

Technology gives individual investors more control over their future. With more information comes more choice and people like us have to provide more information to investors.

Similarly, everyone can cook at home, but sometimes we need to go to restaurants to be served by professional chefs. We can buy medicine at the pharmacy, but sometimes we need to see a specialist. This shows that using the services of professionals brings many benefits, because they are trained, experienced, take time and take responsibility. And the same goes for investing, not everyone can manage and invest their own money.

We cannot force people to come to us, we can only provide good service. This year, Dragon Capital is 30 years old. For about 25 years, we have mainly supported foreign investors. Dragon Capital's largest investors are European and Asian governments and large organizations.

In recent years, we have begun to prepare to be able to support Vietnamese investors. Dragon Capital has 4 funds for Vietnamese investors, which are 4 basic funds: DC Dynamic Equity Fund (DCDS), DC Dividend Concentrated Equity Fund (DCDE), DC Bond Investment Fund (DCBF), DC Fixed Income Enhanced Bond Investment Fund (DCIP).

In addition, we also have another interesting type, ETF (exchange-traded fund), which is a more modern type of instrument. This type of investment is very popular in the US, Europe, China... Dragon Capital has 3 ETF funds, providing investors with flexibility and diversification in portfolio management.

Along with that, we have a long-term pension fund platform, for individuals and businesses. This helps our clients have options that suit their long-term financial goals and plans.

Can you share more about Dragon Capital's Pension Fund?

Launching the first pension fund in Vietnam is both an opportunity and a challenge for Dragon Capital. Pension funds are long-term commitments, typically lasting around 20 years, so our focus is on building sustainable client service.

Currently, our fund has about 100,000 account holders, of which 50,000 are active accounts. However, this number is only a small fraction of Vietnam's population of about 100 million people.

Our goal is to improve accessibility through Dragon Capital applications for individual and corporate investors; transparent management so that investors know clearly the status of their investments. Dragon Capital has invested heavily in technology platforms to serve Vietnamese investors. I believe that technology will be the key to the future.

Having been associated with Vietnam for more than 30 years, known as "the bridge builder bringing foreign capital into Vietnam", what is your comment on the development of Vietnam's capital market in recent times and prospects in the coming years?

The past 30 years have been a period of formation and development of Vietnam’s capital market. Vietnam has focused on introducing its potential and investment opportunities to foreign investors, those with experience and understanding of stocks, bonds and market regulations.

Looking forward, we expect that the Vietnamese capital market will mature and become a professional “player”.

Vietnam is ready to become a mature member of the global capital market, shedding the image of a “frontier” market. Figuratively speaking, the Vietnamese capital market will no longer be riding a bicycle, but will mature more strongly, riding a motorbike or a car.

This development reflects Vietnam's aspiration to be recognized as an equal, confident and respected member in the international financial market.

In fact, when deposit interest rates decrease, people will look for alternative investment channels, such as real estate, bonds, stocks, life insurance, pension funds, etc. This is a natural trend, not only in Vietnam, but in all countries.

The Vietnamese stock market currently has 7 million accounts, of which about 3 million are active. This is still a small number compared to Vietnam's urban population of about 40 million and total population of about 100 million. Dragon Capital predicts that the number of active investors will increase significantly in the coming years.

Having run Dragon Capital for many years, have you learned any experience or taken any operational inspiration from any specific manager or fund?

At Dragon Capital, we believe that our path is unique and one-of-a-kind. We do not follow a single model of any fund. Instead, we value learning from many different successful examples, as each fund has its own strengths.

For example, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, managing a portfolio of about $10 trillion in assets (about 5% of global GDP). They have many strategies worth learning from, from risk management, expanding their operations, to providing a wide variety of products.

However, our focus remains on harnessing collective ideas from the team to create a unique path in the evolving capital market landscape in Vietnam.

It is known that you love reading books. Can you share about the books that have influenced your thinking and perspective on life?

I read a lot of books and am particularly attracted to three areas: history, philosophy-spirituality and the natural world.

As I have grown older, my fascination with Asian philosophy has grown. These fields offer profound insights into our existence and purpose. While history explains our past actions and events, philosophy delves deeper, questioning our very nature as human beings and the nature of reality. For me, the natural world is a source of endless fascination.

Some of the recent books I’ve read, like The Complex Network of Tree Communication or The Ecological Importance of Fungi, have been incredibly enlightening. They’ve reminded me how much we still don’t know about our planet and the universe.

As we grow up, we often realize that non-fiction books offer more than fiction or romance novels. Because the truth, with its unvarnished depth, is always more attractive and beautiful than any fiction or novel in the world!

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