Frasers Property has targeted growth opportunities to strengthen its position in each of its market segments and to create significant value for customers and local communities. What opportunities does Frasers Property have in Vietnam?

We are committed to creating long-term value in Vietnam through our holistic and integrated investment and development real estate platform. We have a proven track record in Vietnam across the industrial and logistics, commercial, and residential sectors as an investor, developer, and asset manager.

Vietnam is a key market within our Group’s portfolio. The Group has been investing in the country for more than 25 years and we feel privileged and pleased to have been able to contribute to its growth over the years. Melinh Point, a Grade A office building in the CBD of Ho Chi Minh City, is our first investment in the country since 1995. In 2017, we developed Q2 Thao Dien, a prestigious mixed-use residential development in the heart of District 2 in Ho Chi Minh City. Q2 Thao Dien was fully handed over in 2021, and is now home to a thriving community of residents and retail and office tenants.

Our Purpose - Inspiring experiences, creating places for good - continues to guide us as we shape spaces and connect as well as strengthen businesses and communities. Since 2019, we have also made several investments to establish and grow our industrial portfolio in Vietnam. For now, we have set our sights on developing approximately 1 million sq m of international grade industrial and logistics facilities in prime locations across northern and southern Vietnam over the next three to five years.

Recent highlights include Binh Duong Industrial Park in southern Binh Duong province, the anchor development in our industrial portfolio in Vietnam, where we have completed, handed over, and fully leased the first phase of 40,000 sq m of ready-built factories. We are now embarking on the next phase of development, comprising an additional 64,000 sq m of ready-built factories.

In the north, we have, together with our strategic partner, expanded our industrial presence to Bac Ninh, Hung Yen, and Quang Ninh provinces to seize new opportunities. Not too long ago, in September, we broke ground at the first phase of Industrial Centre Yen Phong 2C in Bac Ninh, and recently organized the soft launch of Industrial Centre Yen My in Hung Yen.

In catering to robust demand for international-grade industrial facilities, we see further opportunities to create long-term value with sustainable industrial real estate. We offer management services for the Eco Logistics Centre in Binh Duong province, providing about 42,000 sq m of warehousing space to sustainability-minded tenants. The facility is LEED-certified, demonstrating our holistic approach to building healthy, sustainable, and high-performing work environments in the industrial space for occupiers.

Frasers Property will continue to actively explore opportunities to strategically scale our portfolio in growth areas. With deep local knowledge and relationships, we will continue to tap the wider capabilities within the Group to deepen our presence in Vietnam.

Focusing on ESG (environmental, social, governance) practices to enable sustainable and resilient growth remains at the core of Frasers Property’s strategy. What is it doing to boost its ESG activities in Vietnam?

We take a progressive and collaborative approach to ESG stewardship, to create long-term value for our stakeholders.

Across our developments, we adopt industry-leading energy management practices to further improve the sustainability credentials of our properties, with the aim of green-certifying 100 per cent of our portfolio in Vietnam. This is important, as green certification enables us to affirm the progress that we are making along our sustainability journey.

For instance, in the commercial segment, our Grade A office building in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City’s CBD, Melinh Point, was awarded Green Mark Platinum certification from Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA), a first for operational office buildings in Vietnam, and is pursuing a second certification for LEED Platinum standards, while Worc@Q2 has achieved LEED Gold certification.

On the industrial front, the Eco Logistics Centre, a ready-built warehouse development that we manage, has also obtained LEED certification, while our very own Binh Duong Industrial Park is on track to receive the same LEED certification, while we aim to achieve a minimum of LEED Silver certification for our industrial and logistics facilities in northern Vietnam.

As part of our efforts to further elevate our ESG performance, we intend to progressively expand the use of renewable energy with the installation of rooftop solar photovoltaics, allocate renewable energy to street lighting, introduce energy and water efficient fittings, and tackle embodied carbon in the construction materials we use for our projects.

Our approach has earned us the distinction of being the first real estate company in Vietnam to obtain Science Based Targets initiatives (SBTi) approval for our science-based targets to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. We have also received a four-star rating from GRESB in recognition of our efforts to date. We are confident that we will, in time, be able to raise our ratings from four stars to five stars (in Standing Investments).

In 2023, we announced a collaboration with the SP Group, a leading energy utility group from Singapore, to develop and implement integrated smart energy solutions at our Binh Duong Industrial Park. This collaboration will accelerate the adoption of sustainability practices and will benefit our tenants with improved energy efficiency and resilience.

Frasers Property has also continued to expand its green and sustainable financing portfolio. How will this be implemented in Vietnam in the year to come?

Green and sustainable financing is part of our Group’s multi-pronged approach to responsible investment. In FY 2023, Frasers Property arranged 12 green or sustainability-linked loans amounting to approximately $3.5 billion. We believe that the green and sustainable financing scene will continue to be developed at a rapid pace in Vietnam. Given our strong commitments on the ESG front, we will continue to work with both foreign and local financiers to incorporate and build our green financing portfolio where relevant and possible.