Tencent and Ant Group hold 26% of the voting shares.

According to filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), VNG Limited has filed an F-1 application to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in the United States.

VNG Limited is headquartered in the Cayman Islands. Its major shareholders include Mr. Le Hong Minh, Mr. Vuong Quang Khai, Tencent and Ant Group (two Chinese companies), and the Singaporean investment fund GIC.

Mr. Le Hong Minh is the General Director and Mr. Vuong Quang Khai is the Permanent Deputy General Director of VNG Corporation (Upcom: VNZ). Mr. Le Hong Minh and Mr. Vuong Quang Khai respectively own 12.6 million and 1.68 million Class B shares, corresponding to voting rights percentages of 45% and 6% in VNG Limited.

VNG Limited owns 49% of the "unicorn" VNG Corporation. VNG Corporation is a Vietnamese technology unicorn, owning the Zalo application. VNG has many large projects and is a leading player in the gaming and online advertising sectors. ZaloPay is considered one of the leading digital e-wallets in Vietnam. In addition, VNG has the VNG Data Center…

*Tencent and Ant Group hold a significant amount of Class A shares in VNG Limited.*

According to filings submitted to the SEC, VNG Limited has two Chinese shareholders: Tencent, owned by billionaire Ma Huateng, and Ant Group.

Specifically, according to the F-1 form submitted to the SEC, VNG Limited has two classes of outstanding shares: Class A common stock and Class B common stock. One Class B share corresponds to 10 voting rights, while one Class A share corresponds to only one voting right.

These are two types of shares for two separate groups of shareholders: foreign shareholders and the management of VNG.

Meanwhile, Tencent is the largest foreign shareholder, owning over 65 million Class A shares (corresponding to 23% voting rights). Ant Group owns over 7.77 million Class A shares (equivalent to 2.8% voting rights).

In addition, GIC owns nearly 15.3 million Class A shares of VNG Limited. Seletar Investments owns over 9.4 million Class A shares, equivalent to 3.4% of the voting rights.

Thus, the number of shares held by the two Chinese shareholders is overwhelming, totaling nearly 72.8 million units. Including the four foreign shareholders, this group holds more than 97.6 million Class A shares of VNG Limited.

Conversely, shareholders Le Hong Minh and Vuong Quang Khai hold more than 14.3 million Class B shares of VNG Limited.

However, according to regulations, Class B shares have 10 times the voting power of Class A shares. Therefore, Mr. Minh and Mr. Khai hold an overwhelming voting stake of 51%, even though they hold significantly fewer shares.

Tencent is believed to have invested in VNG since 2010. However, from then until the filing with the SEC on August 24th, neither side officially confirmed this information publicly, even though some executives from Tencent had moved to VNG.

VNG Corporation was established in 2004, initially named Vinagame Joint Stock Company, with a charter capital of 15 billion VND. The company has repeatedly planned to list internationally but has been unsuccessful.

In 2017, VNG also signed a memorandum of understanding regarding a listing on Nasdaq in the US. Then, in 2021, according to Bloomberg, VNG considered listing its shares in the US through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) valued at $2-3 billion.

In 2014, VNG was valued at $1 billion. In 2019, Temasek, the Singapore government 's investment fund, valued VNG at $2.2 billion.

In early 2023, VNG registered for trading on Vietnam's Upcom stock exchange with an initial price of 240,000 VND/share. By February 16th, VNZ shares had risen to over 1.56 million VND/share, equivalent to a market capitalization of over 55.9 trillion VND (approximately 2.3 billion USD).

Currently, VNG has a market capitalization of 29,500 billion VND (equivalent to over 1.2 billion USD).

Why is VNG taking a roundabout route through the Cayman Islands tax haven to list on the US stock exchange? Vietnamese tech "unicorn" VNG, led by CEO Le Hong Minh, may soon be listed on the US stock exchange after its major shareholder in the Cayman Islands tax haven filed an application to list its shares on the Nasdaq.

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