A Nguyen Kim electronic retail store in HCM City. The firm has been acquired by Thailand's conglomerate Central Group. (Photo: cafef.vn)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) -𒊎 Thailand-basedconglomerate Central Group, through its subsidiary, has taken the control ofthe Vietnamese electronics retailer Nguyen Kim.
Thedeal was revealed after the group’s sub-unit, Central Retail Corporation PublicCompany Limited (CRC), publicised its third-quarter financial statementfollowing the latter’s IPO on Thailand’s stock exchange on February 20. CentralGroup on June 7, 2019 obtained control of NKT New Solution and TechnologyDevelopment Investment JSC and its subsidiaries by “additionally acquiring 51percent of the total issued shares” to raise its ownership from 49 percent to100 percent through an indirect subsidiary, CRC said in its financialstatement. Thevalue of the deal was nearly 3.56 billion THB or 2.66 trillion VND (115 million USD), the company said, adding 86.6 percent ofthe funding came in cash and the remainder was “recorded under othernon-current liabilities.” NKTNew Solution and Technology Development Investment JSC is the operator ofelectronics store chain Nguyen Kim. Thecompany, which was founded in 2014with 800 billion VND worthof charter capital, runsmore than 70 stores nationwide. Thedeal allowed CRC to increase its equity interest in the Vietnamese business andits subsidiaries, including electronic retail store chain Nguyen Kim, to 81.53 percent from 39.95 percent,CRC said. TheThai retail giant in 2015 bought 49 percent of capital in Nguyen Kim through its electronic unit PowerBuy. The value of the deal was reported at 200 million USD. BetweenJune 7 and September 30, 2019, NKT New Solution and Technology DevelopmentInvestment JSC and its subsidiaries contributed 4.45 billion THB or 3.27 trillion VND and 58 million THB or 42.6 billion VND to Central Group’s Q3 revenue and profit. Beforeacquiring Nguyen Kim, Central Group bought outsupermarket chain Big C Vietnam from the France-based Casino Group for 1billion USD in 2016. CentralGroup’s Vietnamese branch is operating a total of 32 shopping centres and215 retail stores in the country./.
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A Nguyen Kim electronic retail store in HCM City. The firm has been acquired by Thailand's conglomerate Central Group. (Photo: cafef.vn) 
