Vietnamese firms get the hang of mergers, acquisitions

A new report by the annual Vietnam M&A Forum shows that 17.72 percent of the total value of M&As in H1 2018 involved Vietnamese buyers. The corresponding figure last year was 8.2 per cent.

Such a rise shows Vietnamese investors are and would be “more active” acquirers though foreign investors will continue to lead the market, it said.

In H1 2018, M&As reached $3.35 billion, up 39 per cent year-on-year.

Dang Xuan Minh, general director of AVM Vietnam, one of the organisers of the Vietnam M&A Forum, said many Vietnamese firms like Kido, Vingroup, Masan, FPT, Viettel, Pan Group, and Vinamilk are using M&As as a ticket to growth.

They have all done some 4-5 deals on average either as a seller or buyer, he said.

Nguyen Van Thinh, CEO of Deloitte Vietnam, said he has seen a sharp rise in the involvement of Vietnamese firms in M&As, especially by bigger private firms like Vingroup.

“Vietnamese firms will be a major driving force of M&As in Vietnam along with foreign investors in the coming years,” he said at a press conference on the Vietnam M&A Forum 2018, scheduled to take place in HCMC in August.

Four thousand M&As deals worth $48.8 billion took place in Vietnam in 2009-2018, according to the M&A Vietnam Forum report.

In 2017 the value had risen 10 fold from 2009 to $10.2 billion as Thailand’s TCC Group acquired 53.59 per cent of Vietnam’s number one brewer Sabeco for $4.89 billion.

This year M&As deals are expected to fall to $6.5-6.9 billion since there are no large deals like Sabeco on the horizon, the report said.

Most future deals would be seen in the real estate and consumer goods sectors, while telecom, energy, infrastructure, pharma and education are also likely to attract funds.