Mekong Capital Partially Exits Investment in MobileWorld

Mekong Enterprise Fund II (Mekong Capital) has completed a partial exit of its investment in MobileWorld Investment Corp., the leading mobile phone retail chain in Vietnam, to a financial investor. The exited shares represent an 11x return (including dividends received) since the Fund’s initial investment in 2007. As a result of the transaction, the Fund’s ownership in Mobile World has been reduced from 32.5 per cent to 25.8 per cent.

 

The Board announced the appointment of Mr Robert Willett as an Independent Director to provide strategic expertise in support of MobileWorld’s growth strategy. Mr Willett is currently Chairman of MetaPack in Europe, a Director of LightHaus Logic in Canada, and a Director of Occa Home in Europe. He is also an advisor to Sabanci Holdings, the parent company of Teknosa, the dominant electronics retailer in Turkey.

 

Chris Freund, Managing Partner of Mekong Capital and a member of the Board of Directors of Mobile World, said: “The tremendous growth and success of Mobile World since we originally invested in 2007 is largely due to the openness and pro-activeness of the 5 co-founders to identify and implement best practices, and invest in developing an excellent management team. They’ve also done a great job creating a corporate culture of integrity and responsibility, and strong corporate governance. Mobile World is a model for what’s possible in Vietnam’s private sector when the founders and top management are open-minded and take action to develop an excellent team.”