A Vincom Centre developed by Vincom Retail, a sub-unit of the real estate-technology-retail giant Vingroup. (Photo: VNA)
South Korea’s conglomerate SK Group, through its investment arm SK South East Asia Investment, has decided to invest US$1 billion acquiring shares of Vietnam’s leading privately run conglomerate Vingroup. The investment could be made as early as April, Bloomberg said on March 22, citing the RoK’s Maeil Business Paper.
Vingroup has recently announced a plan of issuing shares through private placement, aiming to raise at least VND25 trillion (US$1.1 billion). The group expected to offload 250 million shares or 7.8% of the share amount in circulation to a maximum of five foreign investors, and the price would be not less than VND100,000 (US$4.3) apiece.
Of the total fund raised from the process, around VND10 trillion (US$430.44 million) would be utilized for debt restructuring, VND6 trillion (US$258.26 million) to invest in Vingroup’s subsidiaries, including VinFast, VinTech and Vinsmart, while Vingroup expected to allocate VND9 trillion (US$387.37 million) as short-term loan for business operations of the group and its subsidiaries.
Vingroup’s shares are being traded at nearly VND120,000 (US$5.17) each, the highest since its first listing and 20% higher than the minimum offering price of the upcoming share issuance.
Vingroup is now the largest listed company in Vietnam by market capitalisation, which reached 373.42 trillion VND at the end of March 22. The company shares gained 1.4 percent to end March 22 at 118,600 VND per share.
SK Group. (Illustrative photo)
In 2018, SK Group bought 110 million shares in the largest private equity consumer firm Masan Group for 11 trillion VND (470 million USD), becoming the largest foreign shareholder with a 9.5 percent stake.
RoK group operates in the fields of energy, telecommunication, high-tech components, logistics and services. It is present in more than 40 countries and territories, earning 141 billion USD in 2017.
