Mirae Asset Becomes No. 2 Shareholder of Vietnam’s Major Pharma Company

The Mirae Asset Financial Group has become the second largest shareholder of Vietnam’s second largest pharmaceutical company.

According to the securities industry on May 4, Mirae Asset Global Bio-Investment Mix 1, a fund established via a limited partnership with Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities as the main participant, recently acquired a 24.9% stake in Vietnamese pharmaceutical company Traphaco for 90 billion won (US$81 million), rising to the second major shareholder position. This fund was formed at the end of last year mainly by Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities and is managed by Mirae Asset Capital, a general partner (GP).

Traphaco holds a distribution network of approximately 23,000 pharmacies and is the second largest pharmaceutical company in Vietnam in terms of sales. The number one shareholder is State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) in Vietnam with a 35.7% stake.

The size of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry in Vietnam stands at US$2.9 billion and US$4.2 billion, respectively (value as of 2015). This is merely one seventh of the size of the industry in Korea. However, a yearly growth rate of 10% or more is expected thanks to economic development and urbanization.

Mirae Asset revealed, “We will fully support Traphaco in forming an advanced production system and improving its R&D capabilities so that it will become the leader of the healthcare and pharmaceutical market in Vietnam.”

Mirae Asset has completed establishing corporate entities of each group affiliate in Vietnam, including securities, asset management, insurance and capital. The group is proactively engaging in one-stop investment from finding investment opportunities, financing and management.

Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities and Mirae Asset Capital established corporate entities in Vietnam as of 2007 and 2011 respectively. In February, Mirae Asset Global Investments and SCIC entered into a joint venture by acquiring Vietnamese securities company ‘Tin Phat.’ Mirae Asset Life also acquired Prevoir Vietnam Life Insurance to establish joint corporation Mirae Asset Prevoir Life Insurace. The Mirae Asset Group is planning to build a localized corporate body network in Vietnam as a base camp to target the Southeast Asian market.

Meanwhile, the Mirae Asset Group is engaging in an aggressive investment strategy overseas by utilizing its 14 corporate entities and offices operating in 10 countries and the capital of Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities which amounts to 8 trillion won.

Chairman Park Hyeon-joo is encouraging foreign investment calling for “recovery of investment ambition.” Last month, he resigned as chairman of Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities and took on the posts of global investment strategy officer (GISO) and the global chief of Mirae Asset Daewoo Hong Kong to lead the path in foreign investments.

Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities and Naver Corporation invested 100 billion won each to create a fund worth 200 billion won in March which will go into investments in e-commerce, internet platform, healthcare and distribution in Vietnam, India and Indonesia. In April, Daewoo Securities invested 243 billion won into China’s biggest ride-share service Didi Chuxing, kicking off its ambitious foreign investment strategy for this year.