S Korea’s SK Group sells 7.1% stake in Vietnam retailer to Masan for $200 mln

South Korea’s chaebol SK Group will sell a 7.1% stake in WinCommerce, a leading retailer in Vietnam, to the latter's majority shareholder Masan Group for $200 million, Masan announced Wednesday.

WinCommerce is Vietnam’s largest modern grocery retail platform with over 130 WinMart supermarkets and over 3,600 WinMart+ minimarts, Masan added.

Masan, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) as MSN, and SK Group also agreed to an extension of SK Group’s put option exercise date with MSN for up to five years, the Vietnamese conglomerate said.

In 2018, SK Group invested $450 million in Masan Group. In 2019, Masan purchased the VinCommerce retail chain from Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup and reformed it to WinCommerce. In 2021, SK Group, via a subsidiary, purchased a 16.3% stake in WinCommerce.

Regarding the latest move, Masan said the additional stake in WinCommerce would strengthen its control and drive long-term growth in its core business. As part of Masan’s further investment, it will receive the right to acquire SK Group’s remaining shares in WinCommerce in the future.

Simultaneously, SK Group reaped successful return on investment by selling a portion of its WinCommerce stake, while continuing its long-term investments in Masan thanks to the extension of the put option, MSN highlighted.

"WinCommerce is entering a stage of profitability and we expect this to accelerate as we deliver like-for-like growth, successful new store openings and drive the acceleration of Vietnam’s modern trade market in the medium term," said Masan CEO Danny Le.

The stake sale is an effort to rebalance SK Group’s portfolio, Masan added.

On the same day, Masan announced the resignation letter of Chae Rhan Chun as a member of the corporation's board of directors. Chae Rhan Chun is the representative of SK Investment Vina I Pte. Ltds, a major stakeholder at Masan.

MSN shares closed Wednesday down 1.57% to VND75,300 ($3.03) apiece.

Masan Group, a leading consumer goods conglomerate in Vietnam, posted H1/2024 after-tax profit of VND607 billion ($24 million), up 89.7% year-on-year.

WinCommerce, its retail arm, reported 9.2% year-on-year revenue growth in Q2/2024 to reach VND7,844 billion ($309.9 million) across the whole network, mainly driven by new store formats of WIN (catering to urban shoppers) and Winmart+ Rural (catering to rural shoppers), with 6.3% and 10.7% year-on-year growth per like-for-like (LFL) calculation, respectively, the review said.