Vinamilk completes acquisition of Moc Chau Milk

Vinamilk now holds 51 per cent of the voting shares in Moc Chau Milk

Vinamilk has announced that it has officially become the parent company of GTNFoods after finishing the purchase of 79.5 million GTN shares (an additional 31.83 per cent stake) to raise its holding to 75 per cent. After the transaction, Vinamilk will own 51 per cent in Moc Chau Milk – a subsidiary of GTNFoods.

The purchase was implemented two days after the shareholders of GTNFoods approved the plan to hand over shares via a private placement.

Previously, the two parties held numerous rounds of negotiation since Vinamilk became a large shareholder of GTNFoods and the latter has recently begun restructuring its activities based on advice from Vinamilk.

GTNFoods is an enterprises operating in the agricultural and food and beverage (F&B) sectors with a charter capital of VND2.5 trillion ($108.7 million). The company invested in state-owned companies, including 73.7 per cent in Vietnam Livestock Corporation JSC, 95 per cent in Vinatea, and 35 per cent in LadoFoods.

According to its consolidated financial statement in 2018, milk processing activity contributed to VND2.48 trillion ($107.83 million) or 82 per cent of its net revenue, an increase of 15 per cent compared to 2017. This increase highlighted Moc Chau Milk's development potential. Thus, the indirect acquisition of Moc Chau Milk will help Vinamilk expand its dairy ecosystem and is an important premise for Vinamilk’s long-term growth target.

At present, Moc Chau Milk holds 9 per cent of the dairy market, a figure that goes up to 35 per cent in the northern region. With 80,000 retail points, Moc Chau Milk's fresh milk coverage is quite extensive.

As of December 2018, Moc Chau Milk owned 25,000 cows, 100 per cent of which were thoroughbred milk cows. The company set the growth target of 10-15 per cent per year and expect to increase the number of its milk cows to 35,000 by 2020.

Co-operating to go farther

According to Bui Thi Huong, managing director of Vinamilk, the company prefers thinking of the deal as joining the operations of Moc Chau Milk deeper, instead of an “acquisition”. The two parties will co-operate to develop.

“Competition is essential for enterprises to grow because it will create motivation for enterprises, however, it need to be fair. Vinamilk always strives to expand the number of its member companies but transparency is first. The increased interest in Moc Chau Milk will help us to seize mutually beneficial opportunities,” Huong said.

“Moc Chau Milk has ample land banks and an extensive farm system that will benefit from Vinamilk's management system and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software,” Huong said.