Vietnam’s real estate, tech and retail conglomerate Vingroup JSC (Vingroup) on December 03 has signed a deal with Masan Group.
According to the agreement, VinCommerce company and VinEco company of Vingroup will be merged with Masan Consumer Holding to become a leading consumer retail group.
After the transaction, Masan Group will take control of the operation of the new business entity and Vingroup is a shareholder, Vingroup said in a statement.
Currently, the two sides are carrying out necessary legal procedures to sign the official contract. Deal value has not been disclosed.
The new business entity will operate a network of 2,600 stores named VinMart & VinMart + in 50 cities of Vietnam and 14 VinEco high-tech farms nation-wide.
Vingroup is the largest private-owned group in Vietnam by market capitalization, and ranks in the Top 10 Largest Enterprises in Vietnam (including both FDI and State-owned enterprises).
After five years of operation, VinMart and VinMart+ of the Vietnamese dollar billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong has successfully taken over a series of retail brands, from Vintexmart, Maximark, Fivimart to Zahhmart, Shop&Go and Queenland to become the largest retail networks.
In 2018, Vingroup announced its vision to become a world-class technology-industrial-services group.
The company is listing nearly 3.2 billion shares on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange with code VIC.
Early this year, Vingroup signed a billion-dollar deal with the Republic of Korea’s SK Group. The South Korean technology and telecommunication firm will acquire 154.3 million primary shares in Vingroup and 51.4 million shares of the Vietnamese firm’s VinCommerce for US$1 billion. After the transaction, SK will own a 6 per cent stake and become a strategic partner of the Vietnamese firm, Vingroup said in a statement.
Last year, Vingroup also sold $400 million worth of preferred shares to Hanwha – another South Korean investor.
Masan Group is among the top three largest private sector companies in Vietnam in terms of market capitalization. The group was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Ho Chi Minh city. Its subsidiaries include Masan Food (consumer staples), Techcombank (financial services) and Masan Resources (mining).
The group launched on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange on 5 November 2009 with code MSN.
Masan Group was among the first domestic Vietnamese corporations to adopt a growth strategy that taps foreign sources of capital for acquisition-driven expansion.