SK Group sells 5.05% stake in Vietnam’s Masan Group

(Han Joo-hyung)

South Korea’s SK Group recently sold a 5.05 percent stake in Vietnam’s Masan Group as part of its ongoing business rebalancing efforts, according to industry insiders on Sunday. This move, aimed at improving operational efficiency, involved the sale of 76.28 million shares to an external party, reducing SK’s stake in Masan from 8.72 percent to 3.67 percent.

Masan Group, Vietnam’s second-largest retail conglomerate, reported that major institutional investors from the U.S., Europe, and Asia acquired the shares sold by SK. The two companies had previously agreed in September to extend the deadline for SK’s put option on Masan shares by up to five years. SK initially invested $450 million in Masan in 2018.

This transaction follows SK Group’s earlier announcement in September to sell a 7.1 percent stake in WinCommerce, a Masan subsidiary, back to Masan for $200 million. SK originally acquired 16.3 percent of WinCommerce’s shares for $410 million in 2021. WinCommerce operates more than 3,600 convenience stores and supermarkets across Vietnam.

In addition to these transactions, SK is reportedly in talks to divest its stake in another Vietnamese entity, Vingroup. SK initially invested $1 billion for a 6.1 percent stake in Vingroup in 2019.

Speaking at the recent SK CEO Seminar, which concluded on Saturday, Chey Chang-won, the chairman of SK SUPEX Council, highlighted the “visible results of proactive rebalancing and operational improvement efforts.” The council is a deliberative body of CEOs of affiliate companies under SK Group and the group’s highest decision-making body.

SK anticipates reducing the number of its subsidiaries by over 10 percent by the end of the year, down from 219 as of the end of 2023. While the group’s net debt increased slightly from 84.2 trillion won ($60.9 billion) at the end of last year to 85.5 trillion won in the first quarter of this year, it began to decrease from the second quarter onwards.