Vietnams KIDO may drop snack business for cooking oil: report
The move is expected to give KIDO the control of the VND22.3-trillion (US$984.31 million) market that grows 7-9 percent a year.
Vocarimex itself is not a popular brand but it currently owns stakes, between 17.8-51 percent, in major cooking oil producers Cai Lan, Golden Hope-Nha Be, Nakydaco and Tuong An.
Officially known as Vietnam Vegetable Oils Industry Corporation, the company is a major supplier of ingredients for many oil makers in Vietnam, according to news website Dau Tu. The company reported a net profit of more than VND311.5 billion ($13.75 million) last year, down 40.67 percent from 2014.
At the moment, the government owns 38 percent of Vocarimex, while VPBank Securities owns 8 percent.
KIDO announced the expansion plan at its recent shareholders’ meeting, soon after revealing that it has been in talks with US’s Mondelez International Inc., to sell the remaining 20 percent stake in its snack business.
The company sold 80 percent of its stake in Kinh Do Binh Duong JSC, now Mondelez Kinh Do, to the maker of Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers for $370 million in 2014.
