Vietnamese tycoons jump in, foreign tycoons leave property market Many M&A deals in the real estate market wrapped up recently. To many people’s surprise, the buyers were not powerful foreign conglomerates, but Vietnamese tycoons.   Vietnam’s BRG officially wrapped up the deal to take over Sedona Suites Hanoi. According to CBRE Vietnam, a real estate service provider, the value of the deal was $31.5 million, and the seller is the Singapore-based powerful real estate group Keppel Land. BRG is well known in Vietnam for a series of deals of buying property projects from foreign investors. In 2012, BRG bought the 5-star Hilton Hanoi Opera from the German and Austrian owners. In early 2015, the group contributed capital to Thang Loi Hotel. It now also holds stakes of a lot of other high-end hotels including Pan Horizon Hotel and InterContinental Hanoi Westlake. BRG is the conglomerate that owns the highest number of golf courses throughout the country. These include BRG King’s Island Golf Resort and BRG Legend Hill in Hanoi, and BRG Ruby Tree in Hai Phong. All of these were bought from foreign investors. Many M&A deals in the real estate market wrapped up recently. To many people’s surprise, the buyers were not powerful foreign conglomerates, but Vietnamese tycoons. Vingroup, the largest Vietnamese real estate conglomerate, has wrapped up the deal of buying a project on Pham Hung Road in Hanoi from Vinaland, a foreign investor. The project is a complex covering an area of 4 hectares, next to Big C shopping center in front of the National Conventional Center and near the My Dinh National Stadium. It was kicked off in 2008 and became operational in 2011, but it has been left idle since then. With its powerful financial capability, Vingroup succeeded in many M&A deals in the past. It took over Hong Ngan, a real estate firm which owned the Green City project in Hanoi, covering an area of 17.6 hectares and capitalized at VND7.9 trillion. The Thanh Hoa Construction Corporation has become well known after a series of large deals recently. It was the buyer in the transfer deal of the Sky Park Residence project in Cau Giay district in Hanoi worth VND143 billion. The corporation also spent over VND100 billion to buy a 4-star hotel with 250 rooms on Cat Linh street in Hanoi. FLC Group, a familiar name, has acquired Alaska Garden City in Hanoi and it is preparing to implement the project under the new name – FLC Garden City. It was also the investor which took over the residence project at No 36 Pham Hung Road. Marc Townsend, CEO of CBRE Vietnam, a real estate service provider, commenting about the transactions of transferring real estate projects by foreign investors, said now is the right time for foreign investment funds to restructure their portfolios.  D. Anh, VNN