31 Aug 2012 Intellasia Finance Vietnam - Hong Kong Business ...

FINANCE
Vietnam finance & business 31 August 2012
Demand for
trademark franchise,
buying and selling
expanding rapidly
lars, an encouraging result if noting that the figure was 5.8 billion dollars at the same
period of the last year.
Also according to JPMorgan Chase, the inflation decreases would have two positive
impacts on the national economy.
Firstly, this would lead to the monetary policies to be loosened, which would support
the growth. Since the inflation rate decreases rapidly, the actual interests depositors
can enjoy have been at the highest levels so far this year, despite the fact that the interest
rate has decreased by 400-500 percentage points.
Secondly, the inflation decreases would help improve the macroeconomic environment
and the payment balance. If the inflation rate is kept at low level, people would
keep dong.
The foreign currency reserves have increased for the first time since 2008, while JPMorgan
Chase believes the reserves would continue rising in the time to come.
The finance newswire Bloomberg on August 28 also published a special report, saying
that the investment opportunities have been open in the Vietnamese stock market.
With the VN Index falling by 22 percent from the highest peak so far this year, Vietnam
has fallen into the bear market situation, where the stocks have become cheaper than
in other regional markets after the arrest of Kien, former Chair of ACB, and then the
arrest of Ly Xuan Hai, former CEO of ACB.
The P/E index of the Vietnamese stock market is now 9.4, the lowest level since May 25
and 33 percent lower than the P/E of the 141 shares - the components for calculating
MSCI South East Asia Index.
Moody's Investors Service on August 24 lowered the credit rating given to ACB Bank
to B2 from B1, while leaving open the possibility of further cutting the credit rating.
Fitch Ratings has also announced the possibility of lowering the credit rating of the
same bank, if its liquidity and prestige stay weak for a long time.
Nevertheless, Marc Faber, Chair of Indochina Capital, an investment fund, who is also
the publisher of Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, believes that the arrests bring long
term investors the opportunities to buy Vietnamese stocks when the stocks are relatively
cheap.
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/26280/foreign-institutions-believe-vietnamese-stocks-cheap-and-attractive.html
31/AUG/2012 INTELLASIA | DOANH NHAN SAIGON
Following the popular affairs such as Pho 24 acquired by Highlands Coffee, which
then sold to Jollibee at more than $20 million, Masan's mobilisation of billions of US
dollar from plenty of foreign financial companies are rumours relating to buying and
selling domestic well-known trademark namely Tan Hiep Phat, Vinamit, Trung Nguyen
and Kinh Do.
This, as such, implies much public interest in the destiny of such reputable names as
well as the allurement from the merger and acquisition (M&A) market in the context
of mounting business difficulties before the acquisition risk from foreign big rivals.
A few years ago saw local brand name deals such as Unilever acquiring P/S toothpaste
at USD 5 million and Colgate purchasing Da Lan toothpaste at USD 3 million. Every
year from then on has witnessed thousands of businesses being capitalised and experiencing
ownership changes, capital restructuring, which has raised demand for trademark
pricing.
Over the past three years, Masan Group (MSN) has mobilised more than USD 1 billion
largely from financial institutions, which is an admirable achievement for all domestic
private companies. This group's partnership includes such established names as Bank-
Invest, Vietnam Azalea Fund (Mekong Capital), TPG (Texas Pacific Group), House
Foods, Mount Kellet, Richard Chandler Corporation and even loans funded by IFC
and Goldman Sachs. As such, a domestic trademark stands a good chance of being
sold at billions of dollars.
In fact, demand for trademark franchise, buying and selling has been rapidly expanding,
said Chair of Masso Consulting's Board of directors Nguyen Trung Thang. As-
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