Singapore’s Growtheum to invest $100 mln in Vietnam dairy firm IDP

Growtheum Capital Partners has agreed to pay around $100 million for a stake in Vietnam’s International Dairy Products JSC (IDP) as the Singapore-based private equity firm looks to tap the region’s growing dairy market.

The Singapore buyout firm will hold around 15% of the Vietnamese company after the deal, Bloomberg quoted a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

“IDP is a unique opportunity for us to participate in Vietnam’s rising consumption story,” Trang Tran, managing director at Growtheum Capital, was quoted by the news service as saying.

The Vietnamese market is home to a population of 100 million people with a growing middle class while residents’ demand for dairy and nutritional products is also on the rise. The lion’s share is held by Vinamilk, the country’s largest dairy corporation, while smaller pieces belong to such producers as IDP, TH True Milk, Dutch firm Frieslandcampina Vietnam, Swiss firm Nestle Vietnam, and some others.

IDP operates two manufacturing facilities in Hanoi and one in Ho Chi Minh City. It makes several products like white milk, chocolate milk, fruit milk, drinking yogurt, and malt drinks under such brands as Ba Vi, Kun, and LIF.

Growtheum was established in 2021 in Singapore. Its investment portfolio, according to its website, includes Bank Allo, a digital bank in Indonesia with a captive ecosystem of more than 200 million users, and AlloFresh, an e-grocery platform also in Indonesia.

Morinaga Milk Industry Company, a popular Japanese formula milk producer, spent VND105.98 billion ($4.5 million) this February on acquiring a 51% stake in Morinaga Le May Vietnam JSC, a major distributor of Japanese goods in Vietnam.