Korean-VN sausage deal delayed

Đức Việt Food Joint Stock Company is one of the biggest food producers in Viet Nam. - Photo toquoc.vn

International and local media earlier reported the South Korean food company was set to acquire 99.99 per cent of Đức Việt Food, one of Việt Nam’s leading meat processors, for US$32 million to make inroads into the Southeast Asian country’s meat processing market with its high growth potential.

“Daesang has not finished all necessary documents for the acquisition. The deal is unlikely to happen this month,” a source familiar with the matter told Việt Nam News.

“It’s not about the price,” the source said.

Mai Huy Tân, the company’s owner, declined to comment, saying the deal is still under negotiation.

Established in 2001, Đức Việt Food is a small but well operated company with a charter capital of VNĐ130 billion (nearly $6 million). It is also the first enterprise trading and manufacturing German-style fresh sausages in Việt Nam.

The sausage manufacturer was listed among the top 500 fastest growing companies in Việt Nam in 2016. In 2015, the company earned $26.5 million in revenues and $1.7 million in net profit.

In a regulatory filing in June, Daesang said it decided to buy Đức Việt Food to reinforce its business in the Vietnamese food processing market that is set to grow fast out of its fledging stage, currently centered on frozen ham products.

Entering Việt Nam in the 1990s by building a seasoning manufacturing plant, Daesang now owns three manufacturing bases across the country.

The acquisition has been attracting big attention in the context the increasingly fierce competition between sausage makers, with participation of both local and foreign players such as Vissan, Đức Việt and Thailand’s CPV.

Early this year, the Masan Group defeated South Korea’s food conglomerate CJ to acquire a nearly 25 per cent stake in the leading Vietnamese meat processing firm, Vissan, for VNĐ2.13 trillion.