On March 12, at the conference “Consumer Goods and Distribution Industry: M&A Trends and Sustainable Investment Strategies for Vietnamese Enterprises” organized by the High Quality Vietnamese Business Association in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Nguyen Tuan Anh, RMIT Vietnam University, said that in recent years, Japanese companies have actively participated in M&A transactions in the consumer goods sector. For example, the Japanese conglomerate Sojitz, through Sojitz Asia Pte.Ltd. and Sojitz Vietnam Co., Ltd., recently acquired all of New Viet Dairy Joint Stock Company, a major food import-export and distribution enterprise in Vietnam.
The reason for this trend is that the yen is depreciating, so Japanese companies are looking to invest abroad, including Vietnam. They see Vietnam as a better choice.
According to Mr. Tuan Anh, this trend will continue in the near future, especially in areas such as logistics and cold supply chains…
Lawyer Dao Tien Phong delivering a speech
“M&A deals will continue to be lively in 2024 because investors are still targeting companies with stable and long-term investment strategies in the agriculture and food industries. They are also interested in sectors such as real estate and construction if they are priced cheaply,” said Mr. Tuan Anh.
In addition to Japan, Lawyer Dao Tien Phong, CEO of Investpush Law Firm, informed that many investors from countries such as Singapore, the United States, and China are also very interested in contributing capital or conducting M&A with potential Vietnamese enterprises.
Among them, Chinese investors want to acquire all or part of the shares of companies that own restaurant chains or manufacturing plants with existing orders to the United States, Europe, such as the textile industry.
“In the southern region, to save time in building manufacturing plants and meeting environmental and fire safety conditions, investors prefer M&A activities over direct investment. Especially with Vietnamese companies with export orders to the United States or Europe, they will implement them immediately,” said Mr. Phong.
According to KPMG’s data, while domestic investors dominated the M&A market in the previous 3 years, in 2023, the top 5 transactions with the highest value belong to foreign investors.
The total value of M&A transactions in the first 10 months of 2023 was USD 4.4 billion with over 260 deals, of which 80% of the transaction value came from the healthcare, finance, and real estate sectors. The average deal value was about USD 54.5 million.
