The Aureos South-East Asia Fund has fully exited a Vietnamese furniture corporation.
The fund was established by Aureos Capital, a private equity fund management company specialising in investing in small to mid-cap businesses in emerging markets.
The fund invested in Truong Thanh Furniture in December 2006, and upon exit received a cash multiple of 1.9x. The internal annual rate of return for the investment was 80.94 per cent.
TTF, one of Vietnam’s largest wooden furniture manufacturers, was founded in 1993 and by 2001 had already penetrated European markets through direct sales to supermarkets including Tesco and Carrefour.
During the period of the fund’s investment, TTF’s sales revenues have grown 345 per cent from USD22.4m in 2006 to USD99.6m in 2009. TTF succeeded in raising USD29.4m through a pre-IPO in 2007 and listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange in February 2008.
Hanjaya Limanto, Aureos’ managing partner in South-East Asia, says: “This exit marks a successful investment for Aseaf. After three enjoyable years working closely with TTF, we are delighted to have secured a profitable exit for our investors, despite what has been a generally challenging global environment.
“TTF was already a strong company when we invested, but we are very proud to have helped them develop into a presence in over 30 countries, increasing their sales four-fold and securing their listing on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.”
