Vietnamese tycoons pocket millions from sale of businesses Big-name Vietnamese brands have changed hands recently after finalizing major deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Tran Kim Thanh, the owner of sweets manufacturer Kinh Do, appeared on the front page of local business newspapers last week when he signed a cooperation agreement with Mondelez International, under which the foreign group will invest $370 million in Kinh Do once the deal is approved by shareholders. Kinh Do is a strong brand which developed over the last 20 years. The “Kinh Do Empire” has brought fame to the owner; his family is among the five richest families in Vietnam. Sources said the owner of Kinh Do thinks the domestic sweets market has become saturated, and now is the time to do business in another field. As Kinh Do plans to launch its own instant noodle product next month, analysts believe the sweets manufacturer is planning to enter this fast-growing market. In early October 2014, Ocean Group (OGC) announced it had sold Ocean Retail, a subsidiary of OGC, with nine retail Ocean Mart supermarkets and four Ocean Mart Express convenience stores. The buyer was Vingroup (VIC), a major real estate development company, which has changed the name of the supermarket chain to VinMart. Analysts said this was a reasonable move taken by Vingroup to enter the retail market. Vingroup, a big investor with powerful financial capability, needs an existing distribution network to “conquer” the distribution sector. Meanwhile, Pham Dinh Nguyen, a businessman well known for his deal of buying the town of Buford in the US and developing a Vietnamese coffee brand, PhinDeli, has sold a large proportion of stakes to Kinh Do, one year after an impressive deal was made. With Kinh Do now holding the controlling stakes, analysts have every reason to believe that Kinh Do is taking over PhinDeli, and is starting its plan to enter the coffee market. Destiny of Vietnamese brands Analysts believe that once a large percentage of stakes of businesses are sold, especially to foreign investors, the names of the businesses and their brands will no longer exist. Many once-strong Vietnamese brands, which were Vietnam’s pride, have disappeared this way. Da Lan (toothpaste) and Tribeco (beverage) have vanished from sight, while Bibica (confectionary) is in danger of being swallowed by a foreign partner. An analyst commented that the recent deals show Vietnamese businessmen cannot continue running their business in the new development period and they have to sell their brands before the brands fade out. “Vietnamese brands all will disappear one day,” an analyst said. US$1 = VND21,000. Manh Ha, VNN