South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group has acquired a 16.26-per-cent stake in Masan Group’s VinCommerce for US$410 million.

The deal values VinCommerce at around $2.5 billion.

“SK’s investment agreement in VinCommerce is part of our strategy to invest in Vietnam’s fast growing sectors,” said Woncheol Park, representative director of SK Southeast Asia Investment. “We strongly believe in the great potential of the O2O integrated retail industry in Vietnam and expect VinCommerce to become an important factor in promoting retail modernisation.”

Managed by Masan Group, VinCommerce operates about 2300 convenience stores and supermarkets across Vietnam. The company aims to increase its store number to 30,000 by 2025.

Its stores currently carry VinMart branding which, as Inside Retail reported yesterday, is to be converted to a new name WinMart, but retain the existing colour scheme and design.

VinCommerce was acquired from Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup by Masan Group in 2019, aiming to form the country’s largest retailer.