Hau Giang Pharma sells 24.4 per cent stake to Japanese enterprise

Notably, Taisho has bought more than 21.3 million DHG shares at the unit price of VND100,000 ($4.48).

After the sale, Taisho became the second largest shareholder in DHG, following State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), which owns 43.3 per cent.

Some large foreign enterprises divesting DHG are Vinacapital, Dragon Capital, Fullerton, Nikko New Age Asia Equity, and Mekong Portfolio Investment Limited, among others.

Taisho Vietnam Co., Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdings Co., Ltd., set up with the initial investment capital of $18 million. The company specialises in manufacturing beverages, such as its key product Lipovitan Honey energy drink.

Vietnam’s biggest publicly-traded drug maker, DHG specialises in manufacturing and trading pharmaceuticals, functional food products, and cosmetics.

As of 2015, DHG ranked among the top five largest domestic drug makers in Vietnam. DHG’s products made up 5 per cent of the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry and accounted for 11 per cent of domestic enterprises’ market share.

As of the first quarter of 2016, the company has an asset of over VND3.4 trillion ($152.4 million) and a net revenue of VND815 billion ($36.5 million) in the first three months of 2016. This year, the company plans to reach VND679 billion ($30.4 million) in profit, up 14 per cent on-year.

The Vietnamese pharmaceutical market has become attractive in foreign investors’ eyes, thanks to a dynamically growing population of more than 90 million and the signing of several landmark free trade agreements (FTAs).

While Vietnam’s third-largest domestic drug maker Domesco has agreed to remove the foreign ownership limit, DHG still keeps it unchanged at 49 per cent.

Hoang Nguyen Hoc, chairman of DHG’s Board of Directors, said at the recent annual shareholders’ meeting that “Pharma is a sensitive industry. Although the government allows foreign investors to hold over 49 per cent chartered capital of a domestic pharma firm, it still lacks detailed guidelines for the issue. Therefore, the board would take no further steps at the moment.”