VietNamNet Bridge – Just within one day, two big deals, each of which was worth billions of dollars, were made. And both of them related to one big conglomerate - Savico.

Established in early 1990s, Savico cannot be considered an “old fox” in the market. However, the two big affairs, huge enough to vibrate the Vietnamese finance market, can show what Savico is.

Sovico Holdings has been well known for the big investment deals in the fields of hotel, real estate and banking. However, it would be a big surprise to many people that the private economic group has jumped into the aviation sector.

On September 25, VietjetAir, a private airline, signed a memorandum of understanding on buying 92 A320s in Paris. The affair worth $9 billion produced a stir the domestic finance market and the aviation sector because of its huge scale.

It might be enigmatic for many people that the fledgling airline, which is just several years old, has such an ambitious plan to gain bigger market share and dares to spend so much money to build its fleet.

However, it’s clear that the airline, or its real owners, must be very financially powerful to be able to make such a big deal.

VietjetAir began its operation in late December 2011, but it unexpected has reported the pretax profit of VND120 billion for the first seven months of 2013. It plans to make initial public offering (IPO) and list its shares on foreign bourses in 18-36 months.

While investors still don’t have sufficient information about the shareholders of VietjetAir, they know that Sovico Holdings is a big shareholder of the air carrier.

On the same day, when the big aircraft purchase deal was made, the investors also heard that the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting of Dai A Bank approved the merger of the bank into HD Bank.

The merger was approved by the State Bank of Vietnam late last year already. However, only the shareholders’ meeting of Dai A Bank on September 25 could give the final answer from the bank with the chartered capital of VND3.1 trillion and the network with 70 branches nationwide.

The investors also heard that the two highest positions at Dai A Bank have been recently held by the big guys from HD Bank and Sovico.

Headquartered in Hoan Kiem district in Hanoi, Sovico Holdings was known more for its investments in the finance, real estate, industry and power sectors.

The name Sovico has been associated with banks and finance companies, namely Techcombank, VIB Bank, PVFC Captial. It bought Furama resort in Da Nang, poured capital into the Ho Guom Hotel in Hanoi, Ariyana project in Da Nang, Phu Long Real Esate Company which develops Dragon City with the investment capital of $1 billion, Abacus Tower in district 1 in HCM City. Most recently, its name has been associated with HD Bank and Dai A Bank.

Sovico also injected money in other business fields, including hydropower, rubber, education and trade. In the energy sector, Sovico invested in a series of power plants, including Binh Dien 44 MW, Daksrong 18 MW, Son Tay Quang Ngai 18 MW, Canan complex 15 MW, and some other projects in Laos and Cambodia.

Manh Ha