However, just four months after the plan was approved, MWG’s chair Nguyen Duc Tai said the company’s board of management is seeking the nod from shareholders on a larger budget, VND2.5 trillion.
Tai affirmed that if shareholders approve the plan, the purchases of home appliance and drug store chains will be done immediately.
Analysts believe the home appliance chain Is Tran Anh.
MWG runs Thegioididong (mobile phone distribution) and Dien May Xanh (home appliance distribution) with a network of 1,480 shops throughout the country. These include 208 supermarkets in HCMC and 153 in Hanoi.
The figure shows the significant difference in the market share between the northern and southern markets.
If considering Dien May Xanh system alone, one would see the uneven distribution of the supermarkets: while there are 45 supermarkets in HCMC, there are only 34 in Hanoi. The other supermarkets are mostly located in southern provinces, such as Dong Nai (20), Binh Duong (15), An Giang (13) and Tien Giang (12).
At the annual shareholders’ meeting in March, MWG said it planned to buy a home appliance center through M&A and jump into the drug distribution field by taking over drug store chains. The budget for the plan was VND500 billion. |
Among these chains, there are four well known names – Tran Anh, HC, Mediamart and Pico. Of these, Tran Anh has emerged recently with the rapid expansion of shops.
The takeover won’t be too complicated because of the simple structure of Tran Anh.
President Tran Xuan Kien and his wife Do Thi Thu Huong now hold 44 percent of Tran Anh stake. If counting the shares held by other members of the family, the figure would be 56 percent.
The second largest shareholder is Nojima from Japan, which holds 30.82 percent.
Regarding the drug distribution chains, analysts believe that the two names most suitable for MWG are Phano Pharmacy and Pharmacity. The former has 60 shops and 500 workers, while the latter has over 40 shops.