Kido divests from owner of cooking oil brands Neptune, Simply

Kido Group, Vietnam's leading food and cooking oil producer, has entirely divested from Calofic Corporation - owner of many cooking oil brands like Neptune, Simply, and Meizan, to restructure its cooking oil segment.

Accordingly, Vietnam Vegetable Oils Industry Corporation (Vocarimex), a subsidiary of Kido, transferred its entire 24% stake at Calofic to Siteki Investment at the price of nearly VND2,158 billion ($86.99 million).

Calofic is a joint venture between Vocarimex and Siteki Investment under Singapore's Wilmar International Group. The company was established in 1996 with the initial investment capital of $22 million which has been raised to more than $260 million.

Currently, the company has two factories in Quang Ninh province (the north) and Ho Chi Minh City (the south) with a total capacity of up to 2,300 tons per day and night.

After the deal, Kido Group (KDC) only owns a single cooking oil brand with a large market share, TuongAn Vegetable Oil JSC (TAC).

The cooking oil segment accounted for more than 80% of Kido Group's revenue in the first nine months of the year.

In the past two years, the group has restructured its cooking oil segment to increase its market share. Accordingly, Kido is in charge of retail distribution of cooking oil products, while TAC is in charge of production activities.

Before divesting from Calofic, KDC delisted TAC earlier this year in order to restructure and streamline the management apparatus, focusing on production and business activities. The goal was to bring TAC to the leading position in Vietnam's cooking oil industry.

In 2021, according to UK-based market research group Euromonitor, KDC held more than 19% market share, excluding the wholesale segment.

On the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, the KDC shares price hit VND58,700 ($2.4) a piece at the closing session on November 18.