SK Group plans to buy $1B Vingroup shares
SOUTH KOREAN conglomerate SK Group plans to purchase $1 billion worth of stocks in Vietnam’s real estateretail-tech giant Vingroup, according to Bloomberg.
The investment could be made as early as April, Bloomberg said on Friday, citing South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper.
Vingroup has recently asked shareholders to approve its private issuance of 250 million shares to a maximum of five foreign institutional investors to raise at least 25 trillion dong ($1.07 billion).
The capital raised from share issuance would be spent on developing technological and industrial sub-units (six trillion dong), paying loans and interests (10 trillion dong), and providing extra funds for the parent firm and its subsidiaries (nine trillion dong).
Vingroup is now the largest listed company in Vietnam by market capitalisation, which reached 373.42 trillion dong at the end of Friday.
The company shares gained 1.4 per cent to end Friday at 118,600 dong per share.
Last year, SK Group bought 110 million shares in the largest private equity consumer firm Masan Group for 11 trillion dong ($470 million), becoming the largest foreign shareholder with a 9.5 per cent stake.
The South Korean group operates in the fields of energy, telecommunication, hightech components, logistics and services. It is present in more than 40 countries and territories, earning $141 billion in 2017.