On February 2, in Hanoi, Chairman of EVN (Vietnam Electricity Group) Dang Hoang An welcomed and held talks with Mr. Takeshi Yokota – CEO and Deputy Chairman of Hyosung Vietnam Co., Ltd. regarding their cooperation.
Hyosung desires to establish a long-term cooperation strategy with EVN in fields where Hyosung has extensive experience and advanced technology such as GIS STATCOM, ESS, transmission line construction, renewable energy, etc.
Information on the EVN website recorded that Chairman Dang Hoang An is willing to support the proposals of Hyosung. In addition, EVN’s management has tasked the East Anh Electrical Equipment Corporation (EEMC – stock code TBD, Upcom) to further discuss with Hyosung Vietnam to expand their cooperation, not just in transformer technology development but also other advanced technologies such as SVC (static compensator), STATCOM (synchronous compensator), etc.
For EEMC, this is the company that Hyosung expressed its desire to acquire shares of EVN’s ownership.
Hyosung Vietnam delegation working at EVN. Photo: EVN
Back in May 2018, Hyosung Vietnam Co., Ltd., a member company of the Hyosung Group in Korea, sent a letter proposing to EVN to buy a full package of over 13 million shares of East Anh Electrical Equipment Corporation (equivalent to 46.58% of the charter capital) from EVN at a price of up to 90,000 VND per share or higher, equivalent to about 1,180 billion VND.
The proposal was sent after the announcement of selling all 13,131,632 shares of TBD by EVN in mid-March 2018. The trading method was matching orders, and the implementation time was expected to be from April 2nd to April 27th, 2018. However, this plan later fell through due to abnormal fluctuations in TBD shares and the share price increased too high. In that context, EVN was concerned that if sold in multiple phases, investors might only buy the controlling stake, and EVN might not fully divest according to the direction of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
According to Hyosung Vietnam, the demand for high-quality electricity in Vietnam is expected to grow steadily as the industry develops and national income increases. To meet this demand, EVN needs a transformer company equipped with after-sales service capacity along with global quality standards.
In this regard, Hyosung can turn EEMC into a global company capable of producing transformers up to 500kV.
However, as of May 19, 2018, Hyosung Vietnam had not received any response from EVN. Meanwhile, along with EVN’s withdrawal announcement, the top management of TBD had sold all shares. The Electrical Equipment Corporation (THIBIDI Joint Stock Company, code THI) continued to buy gradually and became the second largest shareholder after EVN.
In August 2020, EVN once again put up for auction over 13 million shares of TBD with a starting price of up to 153,100 VND, equivalent to a starting price of over 2,000 billion VND. The TBD’s market price at that time was only 88,000 VND per share. The auction again failed.
At that time, THI held 24.89% of TBD shares. Currently, the shareholders of TBD include EVN holding 46.58% of shares and THIBIDI holding 46.17%. The company has raised its ownership proportion after publicly offering to buy 6.88 million TBD shares at a price of 96,600 VND in August 2023.
THIBIDI is a company owned 98.7% by Gelex Power Joint Stock Company (GEE) – a subsidiary of the GELEX Group (GEX) with 79.99% of the equity capital.
According to the financial report for the fourth quarter of 2023 recently released by East Anh Electrical Equipment Corporation, net revenue reached 890.5 billion VND – an increase of nearly 40% compared to the same period, and after-tax profit reached nearly 35 billion VND – an increase of 84%. Accummulated for the whole year 2023, the company reached a net revenue of 1,818 billion VND – an increase of 8.4% compared to 2022 and an after-tax profit of over 50 billion VND – increase 17.7%. In the last trading session, TBD increased by 15% to 73,800 VND reaching a market capitalization of nearly 2,400 billion VND.
In Vietnam, Hyosung is a low-profile chaebol, not as prominent as Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Lotte, etc., because their products are not consumer goods, household goods, or technology products. Nevertheless, Hyosung is known as a major investor in Vietnam and the largest in Dong Nai province. The group operates in various fields such as manufacturing fibers for the textile industry, tires for automobiles, transformers, chemicals, industrial materials, heavy industry, and information technology.
At the Vietnam – Korea Economic Forum in 2023, the Chairman of Hyosung Group, Mr. Cho Hyun Joon, shared that the Group had invested more than 20 years in Vietnam with total capital of about 20,000 billion Korean Won (about 3.5 billion USD) and more than 9,000 laborers.
At the end of 2023, representatives of the Hyosung Group presented the idea of building a biofiber production plant in Phu My 2 Industrial Park with a total investment of 720 million USD. This is the first project of the Hyosung Group worldwide to apply modern, advanced, and environmentally friendly technology to produce spandex fabric fibers.
