VinaCapital announced a plan to change one of its investment funds,Vietnam Infrastructure Ltd. (VNI), into an open-end fund on October 16.

According to VinaCapital Managing Director Andy Ho,the fund will be split into two parts, one for infrastructuredevelopment projects and the other for a portfolio of listed shares.

The decision was prompted by the ongoing national trend to convertclosed-end funds into open-end ones that allow capital investors to thefund to withdraw from the Vietnamese market more easily.

However, VinaCapital is not considering changing any othersubsidiaries, such as the Vietnam Opportunity Fund Limited (VOF), asthey are not suitable to the open-end model.

VNI wasformerly a closed-end fund with net assets worth more than 231 millionUSD at the end of September. It mainly focused on projects intelecommunications, petroleum, industrial parks and urban areadevelopment.

VinaCapital is an asset management firmin Vietnam that currently manages three close-end funds registered onthe AIM Market at the London Stock Exchange, including VOF, VinaLandLimited (VNL) and Vietnam Infrastructure Limited (VNI).

The firm also co-manages the DFJ VinaCapital LP technology venturecapital fund with Draper Fisher Jurvetson, an international technologygroup.

Its net asset value now totals nearly 1.5 billion USD.-VNA