VietNamNet Bridge - Vingroup has spent huge sums of money to take over Maximark, a retail chain, while KIDO Group has decided to invest in Rong Viet Securities Company. Meanwhile, VTV national TV has announced it will withdraw capital from subsidiaries.

President of KIDO Group Tran Le Nguyen will register to buy 24.5 million Rong Viet shares, while Asia Investment will buy 10.52 million shares when the securities company issues additional shares in the time to come.

This information was released at the Rong Viet Securities’ (VDSC) extraordinary shareholders’ meeting held on October 28, 2015.

Nguyen was named chair of VDSC’s board of directors in the 2012-2016 term after the meeting.

VDS plans to issue 35 million shares in 2015 to double its chartered capital to VND700 billion

Real estate developer 

Vingroup, a big company in the real estate sector, on October 25, announced a deal to buy 100 percent of stakes of Maximark, a retail chain run by An Phong Investment JSC.

With the deal, Vingroup has become a new owner of nine supermarkets, shopping malls and other assets. After formalities are completed, all of them will be renamed VinMart/VinMart+ belonging to Vinmart chain, or become the members of Vincom Retail which bears Vincom brand.

Vingroup said the move is a part of its strategy to expand its retail network throughout the country, especially in the southern market.

As of October 2015, VinMart & VinMart+ had 125 shops, while the Vincom Retail chain had had 12 Vincom and Vincom Mega shopping malls. The figure is expected to increase to 40 by 2016.

VTV to sell stake in 3 subsidiaries

General director of the national television VTV Tran Binh Minh has said VTV will divest three pay-TV firms -  VTVcab (cable TV), K+ (digital satellite TV) and SCTV (Saigontourist cable TV).

In the future, VTV will only manage TV programs, while it will not get involved in the firms’ business. 

VTV now controls the pay-TV market in Vietnam. A report of VNPayTV, the pay-TV television association, said Vietnam had 7 million pay-TV subscribers by June 2014.

Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted an expert as saying that pay-TV is the business field which can bring ‘super profit’. 

The expert said a pay-TV service provider can expect the growth rate of 130-140 percent per annum, while the investment in pay-TV can bring the profit of 30-40 percent per annum, the high profit rate which cannot be obtained by any other business fields.

VTV’s announcement on the disinvestment caught the public’s attention. Sources said that a large telecom group has shown interest in VTVcab.

Kim Chi