Vietnam’s Masan Group plans to list its Masan Consumer unit on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange by the third quarter of this year, dependent on an ongoing trade war that has impacted the capital market, its chief said on Friday.
“The capital is following from developed markets into Asia, particularly consumer staples…the target is the third quarter, latest is the first quarter next year,” chief executive officer CEO Danny Le said at a shareholder meeting, referring to the listing of Masan Consumer.
The company has, however, dropped a possible international listing plan of its Crown X unit, Vietnam’s biggest retail company. Masan first flagged the listing in 2022.
The CrownX was formed in 2019 through a merger of Masan’s food and beverage unit and Vingroup’s retail units and high-tech farms. Masan had proposed listing The CrownX in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Vietnam by 2025.
At the shareholder meeting, the company said it also intends to lift the foreign ownership limit.
Le said Masan’s consumer unit should benefit from lower tariffs that Vietnam is offering for U.S. imports such as soybeans and wheat, which are its crucial inputs. The government has been seeking to negotiate better terms to avoid steep 46% tariffs imposed on imports from Vietnam over its big trade surplus with the United States.
The group is targeting achieving net revenue of up to 85.5 trillion dong ($3.29 billion) and net income of 6.5 trillion dong ($249.81 million) this year.
Reuters
