Dragon Capital, investment manager of Vietnam Enterprise Investments (VEIL ), the largest of the three London-listed Vietnam funds, has promoted deputy manager Tuan Anh Le to lead a recovery in the £1.1bn portfolio.

Dien Vu Huu, lead manager for 12 years, who generated an average annual dollar investment return of 13.2% ahead of the Vietnam stock market’s 11.9%, had asked to ‘enter the next phase of his career’, Dragon Capital said. 

He will take up a new role within the firm responsible for helping bring companies to market, investing in businesses before they float, and co-ordinating stakes in private firms across the firm’s funds. 

Tuan, who joined Dragon Capital in 2006 and has been the deputy manager on VEIL since 2010, became lead manager on 1 February with Dien providing support to him and two deputy managers, Tuan Bui Minh and Thao Ngo Thanh, in the interim. 

The change comes after a period in which VEIL has fallen behind its two rivals. Over five years, its underlying investment return of 42.2% has provided a shareholder return of only 26.5% due to the shares trading at a wide discount to asset value, currently 18.5%.

VietNam Holding (VNH ) and VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity (VOF ) have generated net asset value (NAV) returns of 81.6% and 64.5% respectively, with their shares up 95.2% and 59.6% and currently trading on discounts of 9.2% and 20.3%.

Tuan has also been lead manager on a large sovereign wealth fund investing in Vietnam since 2016. Under him, the $600m (£470m) portfolio outperformed the VNI index six years out of seven and had an annualised total return of 12.8% during his tenure, compared to the VNI’s 8.9%.

VEIL chair Gordon Lawson said he was ‘confident’ Tuan and the team will ‘continue to manage VEIL’s portfolio for the benefit of shareholders’.

‘We wish to place on record our thanks to Dien for his commitment and stewardship of the portfolio over the last 12 years, and look forward to further valuable contributions from him in his new role,’ he said.

From July this year the management fee on VEIL will be dropped to a flat 1.5% after the board negotiated the removal of the tiered management fee that saw Dragon Capital paid 1.85% on the first $1.25bn (£1bn), 1.65% for assets up to $1.5bn and 1.5% thereafter.