M&A activity picks up

Son Ha, a company listed in HCM City with interests in mechanical engineering, renewable energy, and property, is likely to sign a contract to sell stakes to a strategic partner tomorrow.

It will issue 10 million shares to increase its chartered capital to VND250 billion (US$13 million) from the current VND150 billion.

This follows a busy week of mergers and acquisitions.

Last Wednesday the Sai Gon Metropolitan Ltd, the foreign partner in the firm that built the Sai Gon Metropolitan office building in HCM City, announced it would buy out the 30 per cent stake held by its local partner, Binh Minh Construction Company.

This British Virgin Islands-registered company has agreed to all conditions by Binh Minh.

Gia Quyen, or Empower Securities Company, concluded a deal to sell 49 per cent to a Korean company, the maximum stake allowed under the law.

The local company will sell more than 12.86 million shares to the Korea Investment Securities Company, doubling its chartered capital to VND270 billion. EPS has to get approval from the State Securities Commission for its issuance.

EPS expects its partner to bring in Korean investors and provide consultancy to Vietnamese companies wishing to list overseas.

Also last week, Hoa Phat Group bought almost a 50 per cent stake held by others in Hoa Phat Energy Joint Stock Company to increase its ownership in the company from 50 per cent to 99.86 per cent.

The company says this would help it improve operations.

As usual, none of the parties in any of the deals were willing to disclose the sums involved.

The developments are in line with the forecast by the auditing and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers of a growth in the number of such deals this year.

Inbound strategic acquisitions and private-equity deals are being fuelled by the global economic recovery and positive sentiment about Viet Nam’s ability to continue to grow at strong rates despite the crisis, according to the firm.

Tags: Vietnam M&A