Nafoods and new major shareholder shoot for high growth in 2018

Founded in 1995, privately-held Nafoods is a globally recognised manufacturer and supplier of fruit ingredients for the local food and beverage processing industry.

The transaction, in which Endurance Capital Vietnam I buys shares directly from the family of Nafoods’ chairman Nguyen Manh Hung, took place on February 9 through a put-through transaction at market price.

“We like owner-operated Vietnamese mid-caps that have the potential to triple their value over 3-5 years–we see this potential, and more, in Nafoods,” said Christopher Beselin, chairman and chief investment officer of Endurance Capital Vietnam I. “We have worked closely with Nafooods for 1.5 years and seen many positive changes implemented by the company’s management. The VND410-billion ($18.6 million) investment into the new and modern factory that is coming online in the first quarter of 2018 is the most obvious one, as it dramatically changes both capacity and production cost.”

“There are also more recent initiatives in Nafoods that we like and which we think hold equally big future profit potential. Vietnam has a great strategic advantage over other countries growing passion fruit and Nafoods has the right integrated-value-chain-oriented strategy to utilise it fully,” he added.

“We are very happy that Endurance Capital Vietnam I has become a major shareholder in Nafoods,” said Nafoods chairman Nguyen Manh Hung. “We think the close co-operation we had with Endurance Capital over the past years has been very fruitful for both the company and its shareholders and I am looking forward to how this even deeper engagement will build even more value going forward.”

“We simply see them as a great partner to have fully onboard when we set off to implement our VND850-billion ($38.6 million) sales and VND85-billion ($3.8 million) net income plan for 2018, as well as for the years to come,” Hung added.

“Nafoods has put in some years of really hard work and is now getting ready to reap the benefits,” said founding partner of Endurance Capital Johan De Geer, who joined Nafood’s Board of Directors in September 2017.

“The projects now underway in R&D for seedlings, fresh fruit technology for faster and bigger sales to Europe as well as continuous organised concentrate sales into the enormous market in China, are of course very exciting to follow,” De Geer said. “The recent months also meant reaching important milestones, as the first deliveries of Nafoods Fresh Fruit from Son La, Nghe An, and the Central Highlands fulfilling all major European certifications have been exported to Switzerland, France, and the United Kingdom. We think the coming years will be very good for Nafoods!”