Malaysia-headquartered private equity firm Navis Capital Partners has exited its controlling stake in Vietnamese food producer Godaco Seafood in a management buyout.
Godaco owns an in-house feed mill, farms, primary and value-added processing plants, and cold storage facilities. This platform “ensures traceability, consistency, and quality in its products at globally competitive production costs”, Navis said in a statement.
Godaco has become one of the largest exporters of pangasius in Vietnam. Its exports cover over 70 countries, with the key markets being China, Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Southeast Asia.
Since Navis’s investment in 2012, the Vietnam-based company has invested in farm expansion and the feed mill, allowing it to diversify its product mix and reduce exposure to the volatile commodity cycle common in the industry.
“Godaco has evolved from a medium-sized pangasius processor to a leading and fully integrated seafood company with globally competitive quality and pricing,” commented Nicholas Bloy, Managing Partner at Navis.
Godaco marks Navis’s second exit this year, after Malaysia’s Everrise supermarket which was sold to Grab.
Earlier investments by Navis in Vietnam include Dan-D Foods, IGC (formerly Thanh Thanh Cong Education), denim manufacturer Saitex, and Hanoi French Hospital.
The education asset was rolled into a regional platform, which was transferred into a continuation fund. The $230-million continuation vehicle was closed last month to partially exit the K-12 portfolio while securing follow-on capital to remain invested.
Navis first explored alternative exits through continuation transaction with its Asia Green Loop Fund, which held five assets from the 2010-vintage Navis Asia Fund VI portfolio. The PE firm divested from Singapore-based electronic waste-processing firm TES in the first continuation fund.
Navis is raising its ninth flagship buyout fund, targeting a corpus of $1 billion. It also aims to raise $350 million for its inaugural debt fund.
The firm manages $5 billion of assets, investing primarily in Southeast Asia and selectively in Australia and New Zealand.
The challenging exit environment has not only prompted the interest in secondaries but also led to more management buyout deals.
Last year, Asian PE major PAG offloaded its shares in Chinese restaurant chain Paradise Group to the founding Chua family. Affinity Equity Partners also divested its position in Indonesia’s largest herbal medicine company Sido Muncul for about $230 million to a group controlled by Irwan Hidayat’s family. Navis’s exit from tertiary education group SEG International was another promoter buyback during the year.
