Lotte enters $1 billion auction to acquire Big C Vietnam

March 10 is the deadline for registration to auction the Big C Vietnam system and currently only Lotte (Korea), TCC Holding and Central Group (both from Thailand) have submitted applications to participate in this auction.

M&A may be the fastest way for LotteMart to gain a foothold in the Vietnamese market.

In recent months, the news that Casio Group plans to sell Big C Vietnam has attracted many large retail groups wanting to join the race to own the Big C chain in Vietnam, including Dairy Farm (Singapore), AEON (Japan), Berli Jucker of TCC Holding and Central Group (Thailand), and now LotteMart (Korea).

According to Bloomberg, there are only 3 groups left, including Lotte (Korea), TCC Holding and Central Group (both from Thailand) that have applied to participate in this auction. Currently, the selling price of Big C is expected to be between 800 million USD - 1 billion USD.

Previously, Central Group said it might not participate in the race to acquire the BigC system in Vietnam if the acquisition process was too complicated compared to the BigC Thailand acquisition.

TCC Group (Thailand) bought the Big C supermarket chain in Thailand from Casino Group (France) for 3.1 billion euros (about 3.46 billion USD). TCC is also the unit that has just completed the acquisition of the entire Metro Cash & Carry business chain in Vietnam including 19 centers and related real estate from Metro Group (Germany) for 655 million euros.

Because of the above move, analysts are leaning towards Thailand's TCC Group in this acquisition race.

Returning to LotteMart, this Korean retailer entered the Vietnamese market in 2008 and currently has 12 supermarkets and shopping malls. LotteMart said it is planning to expand its supermarket chain in Vietnam to 60 by 2020, with M&A as the main strategy. In 2015, LotteMart acquired more than 70% of Diamond Plaza's shares in District 1 (HCMC); Lotte Mart also reached an agreement to lease the entire area of ​​4 commercial floors (about 20,000 m2) of Mipec Mall Hanoi (formerly Pico Mall).

In addition, the group also operates fast food, shopping malls, hotels and cinemas in Vietnam.

According to Baodautu