Mekong Enterprise II takes exist from Golden Gate

"Hot pot conveyor Kichi Kichi” in Kichi Kichi Restaurant

This divestment results in a net return multiple of 9.1x and a gross internal rate of return of 45.1 per cent on the bond sold by the fund.

“We are very delighted with the performance of Golden Gate, which has grown from five restaurants at the time we invested in April 2008 to 67 presently under 11 concepts. We remain very excited about the long term future of the company as the management team has set a clear long term vision and a clear plan for achieving that vision,” said Chad Ovel, partner of Mekong Capital.

“Furthermore, they have consistently been open to learning from others, swiftly adopting best practices and building up their team. Nonetheless, as a lot of value had been created in the period of our investment, we saw this as an opportunity to realise profits for the fund,” he shared.

Golden Gate is one of the leading restaurant chain operators in Vietnam.

The company currently develops and operates 67 restaurants under 11 concepts in Vietnam including Ashima – the pioneer mushroom hotpot restaurant chain in Vietnam, Kichi-Kichi – rotary express hotpot restaurant chain, SumoBBQ – grill & hotpot restaurant chain, Vuvuzela - beer club chain and Isushi - buffet a la carte of Japanese cuisines.

Other concepts are Ba Con Cuu – Inner Mongolia hotpot restaurant chain, 37th Street – a modern-oriented but traditional street food restaurant, Daruma – Japanese sit-down restaurant, Gogi House – Korean BBQ restaurant chain, City Beer Station, an affordable beer garden and iCook – a Japanese fast-food delivery concept.

Launched in 2006, Mekong Enterprise Fund II is the second of three private equity funds managed by Mekong Capital.  

Mekong Enterprise Fund II made 10 investments of which seven have already been fully exited. The Fund’s remaining three investments include Mobile World (retail), Asia Chemical Corp (chemical distribution), and Vietnam Australia International School (K-12 education).