Korean giant SK mulls Southeast Asia asset sale for reinvestment

SK Group, South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate, said Monday it is considering selling some of its assets in Southeast Asia to reinvest in other companies in Vietnam and other regional countries.

The plans to decide which assets to potentially sell will depend on buyers’ interest, and the group will consider reinvesting some of the proceeds from any stake sales in local firms, Reuters quoted an SK Group spokesperson as saying.

The source, who was not named, did not disclose details of which assets might be sold.

In Vietnam, SK Group’s regional investment arm SK South East Asia Investment holds a 6.1% stake in the country’s largest conglomerate Vingroup JSC, a 9.5% stake in Vietnam’s No. 2 conglomerate Masan, a 14.5% stake in retail chain Pharmacity, a 54% stake in pharmaceutical company Imexpharm Corp., a 16.3% stake in retailer VinCommerce (under Vingroup), and a 4.9% stake in The CrownX - a Masan retail platform.

SK Group set up its Singapore-based SK South East Asia Investment in 2018 to expand the Korean giant’s investment activities in various business sectors across the region.

The investment arm, in partnership with Korea’s state National Pension Service, has so far spent as much as 3 trillion won ($2.34 billion) to purchase stakes in seven Vietnamese and Malaysian companies, according to a Sunday report by the Korea Economic Daily.

Some of the proceeds from the sale of stakes in the Vietnamese and Malaysian firms could be reinvested in promising companies in Southeast Asia, the report said.