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Investment
Nov 29, 2017 / 07:31

Foreign investors spending billions USD to infiltrate Vietnam’s market

Nguyen Tung

Not only in single deal, but many big corporations have spent heavily in a series of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) in combining with direct investments to acquire leading enterprises in Vietnam in various fields with high potential such as real estate, retail and consumer goods.

In investment waves of enterprises in South East Asia and East Asia into Vietnam in recent years, it is now common to witness M&A deals with value up to hundreds of millions of USD in Vietnam. In particular, there are deals up to billion USD such as Central Group (Thailand) acquiring Vietnam’s super markets Big C (1.05 billion USD) or JC&C buying 10% stakes of Vietnam's largest listed company Vietnam Diary Products JSC (Vinamilk) for 1.16 billion USD.
 
Central Group (Thailand) acquiring Vietnam’s super markets Big C (1.05 billion USD).
Central Group (Thailand) acquiring Vietnam’s super markets Big C (1.05 billion USD).
Not only in single deal, but many big corporations have spent heavily in a series of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) in combining with direct investments to acquire leading enterprises in Vietnam in various fields with high potential such as real estate, retail and consumer goods. Notably, among these corporations are leading enterprises in Thailand Such as SCG, TCC Group or Central Group, CJ Group of Korea and Jardine Matheson of Hong Kong. 

Jardine Matheson Group has been operating in Vietnam for a long time under the form of direct investment in some fields such as real estate or food & beverage, but now the enterprise has made a surprise move when JC&C – a branch of Jardine Matheson Group based in Singapore spent 1.15 billion USD to acquire 10% stakes of Vinamilk. 
 
JC&C buying 10% stakes of Vietnam's largest listed company Vinamilk for 1.16 billion USD.
Moreover, JC&C also holds 25.1% stakes in Truong Hai Auto Corporation (THACO), one of the leading car manufacturer in Vietnam (with 32% of Vietnam’s automobile market), and 23% stakes of the Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE). In total, these three investments of JC&C have the market value of nearly 2 billion USD.

Other members of Jardine Matheson Group such as Hong Kong Land, Jardine Pacific Holdings or Dairy are also investing in Vietnam in diversified fields and services such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks; health and beauty retail chain Guardian; Schindler elevator as well as some valuable real estate properties in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh. 

On the other hand, the billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, one of the richest businessman in Thailand and the owner of TCC group has been active in investing and acquiring leading Vietnamese enterprises in fields of food & beverage and retail. With two leading enterprises in the food & beverage in the region being Fraser&Neave and ThaiBev, Charoen are very interested in investing in leading Vietnamese brewer Sabeco, as well as to increase his shares in Vinamilk. As such, currently TCC are holding valuable assets in Vietnam, such as 18.7% stakes in Vinamilk held by Fraser&Neave with value of 2.3 billion USD; MM Mega Market Vietnam, formerly known as Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam, was acquired from Metro AG in 2016 with value of 710 million USD; 65% stakes in Phu thai Group, which was acquired in 2015 with value of 32 million USD; and 65% stakes in Hanoi Melia Hotel. 

Other Thailand’s billionaire Tos Chirathivat is also taking similar moves in Vietnam’s retail market. As such, Central Group has acquired a number of leading Vietnams’ retailers such as Big C, Nguyen Kim and Zalora, in which Big C super markets was acquired with more than 1 billion USD.

CJ Group, leading Korean enterprise operating in numerous fields such as logistics, media, food & beverage. M&A deals of CJ Group in Vietnam have been diversified, such as the acquisition of Megastar cinemas, which is now renamed as CJ CGV Vietnam.  On October 2017, CJ Logistics also bought stakes of 2 branches of leading enterprise in Vietnam’s logistics market Gemadept being the Gemadept Shipping Holdings and Gemadept Logistics Holdings. Besides, CJ Group has also invested directly in bakery brand Tous les Jours, K-Mart, Korea Express or CJ Vina Agri. 

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