Real estate giant shakes up market with yet another business

Vingroup has invested VND2.4 trillion ($103.2 million) for an 80 percent stake in payment intermediary services firm VINID Joint Stock Company, according to a statement on the National Business Registration Portal.

VINID, incorporated this week, has a charter capital of VND3 trillion ($129 million) and its other two founding shareholders are Hanoi-based VICARE Corporation (19 percent) and a person named Nguyen Minh Hong (1 percent).

VINID sought to operate in 12 different areas of business, and received a registration certificate from the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment.

The payment services business must wait for State Bank of Vietnam permission, but the company has indicated it intends to begin as soon as it gets the green light.

VINID is running Vingroup’s customer loyalty program, issuing VinID cards to customers of all of Vingroup’s subsidiaries.

The firm takes care of four million card holders, Pham Nhat Vuong, chairman of Vingroup, told the 2018 annual general meeting held in May.

The entry into the payments industry is meant to take advantage of Vingroup’s huge range of products, the company stated.

The entry into payments comes on the heels of a slew of announcements the company has made about new business plans this year.

In June Vingroup had said it would make electronic goods with the Vsmart brand of smartphones getting priority.

It has set up VinSmart company with a charter capital of VND3 trillion ($129 million) to produce smart electronic products including phones and carry out R&D into artificial intelligence, automation, and next-generation materials.

It will build a plant at the Dinh Vu – Cat Hai Economic Zone in the northern port city of Hai Phong.

In April Vingroup revealed plans to enter the pharmaceutical industry and set up a medical research and production facility in the northern province of Bac Ninh.

It would invest VND2.2 trillion ($94.6 million) in the first phase of the project, the company said.

Vingroup is the largest listed company in the Vietnamese stock market with its market capitalization reaching $13.62 billion, the group stated on its website in April.

Last year it raked in net revenues of VND89.350 trillion ($3.84 billion), a 55.1 percent increase year-on-year.