New players intertwine at Vincom Retail

Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup has divested a 55% stake in SDI, which indirectly holds a 41.5% stake in Vincom Retail JSC via its subsidiary Sado Trading JSC.

Berjaya Vietnam CEO Nguyen Hoai Nam was the main player in the takeover, but there was also a group of businessmen who either studied or worked in Eastern Europe.

The transaction leaves Vingroup as the second largest shareholder, directly owning 18.4% of Vincom Retail’s charter capital, according to a Friday release from Vingroup.

On Thursday, four organizations bought 55% of SDI, including NP Business Investments JSC (16%), Thien Phuc Business Investment and Development JSC (16%), Falcon Business Investment and Development JSC (12.5%), and Emerald Business Investment and Development JSC (10.5%).

On March 29, NP Business Investments and Thien Phuc mortgaged contracts at Techcombank to transfer 16% of SDI capital from Ngoc Viet Commerce & Trading JSC.

NP Business Investment has links to Nguyen Hoai Nam. This company was established in December 2023 with a charter capital of VND505 billion ($20.14 million). Its shareholders include NP Investment Co., Ltd. (5%), Nguyen Hoai Nam (90%), and Phuong Anh Phat (5%). Phat, born in 1971, is currently the CEO and legal representative of the company.

Phat is also a member of Emerald Business Investment and Development JSC, which holds a 10.5% stake in SDI.

Nam is CEO of Berjaya Vietnam, a subsidiary of Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya Corporation Berhad. He has also just been nominated to the board of directors of Vincom Retail (HoSE: VRE), for the 2023-2028 tenure.

Nam and Phat have worked together on a series of businesses that include SaigonBank-Berjaya Securities JSC and Berjaya-D2D Co., Ltd. Notably, they contributed capital to JVA Ho Chi Minh City Co., Ltd., and JVA Trading Co., Ltd. – distributors of Jeep vehicles in Vietnam.

The JVA group is also connected to Falcon. As of March 2024, Nguyen Thi Thanh Chau held 48.5% of Falcon’s charter capital. She is also linked to the same group as Nam and Phat.

Notably, the largest shareholder holding a 49.5% stake in Falcon is a former banker who has connections with businessmen who studied or worked in Eastern Europe, including Vingroup chairman Pham Nhat Vuong and Techcombank chairman Ho Hung Anh.

Meanwhile, the shareholders of Thien Phuc include Huynh Thanh Truc (49%), Luong Phan Son (36%), and Huynh Thien Phuc (15%).

Son served as a board member of top Vietnamese private lender VPBank from April 2012 to October 2012, and from April 2013 to April 2017. Leaving VPBank, he started his own business by establishing a series of companies carrying out large-scale real estate merger and acquisition deals.

Son is the legal representative of Capitaland Tower Co., Ltd. - the developer of The Sun Tower project, also known as Landmark 60 Bason, located next to the Saigon River and Ba Son port in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

In 2023, from July 25 to August 11, Capitaland Tower mobilized nearly VND12.24 trillion ($490.3 million) from four bond issuances. These bond packages all had terms of 60 months, with Techcombank as the depository organization.

In a newly released report, Vietcap Securities JSC revealed that Vingroup can transfer 100% of SDI's capital at a price of more than VND39,000 billion ($1.56) per share, nearly 30% higher than VRE's current market price of VND24,700.

Vietcap also said that Vingroup is aiming to make a pre-tax profit of VND21.52 trillion ($862 million) from the deal.