US investor sells last of its shares in Vietnam’s biggest F&B brand
The final sell-off comes five years after KKR’s purchase of Vietnam's leading diversified branded food and beverage company became the largest private equity investment in Vietnam’s history.
KKR first invested US$159 million in Masan Consumer in 2011 with a second follow-on investment of US$200 million in 2013.
Masan Consumer is currently the market leader in Vietnam’s seasonings, convenience foods and instant coffee categories and and owns some of the country’s most recognised consumer brands.
Since KKR entered into partnership with Masan Consumer in 2011, the company has grown in the wake of changing consumption trends driven by Vietnam’s fast-growing middle-classes.
"KKR's investment and partnership with Masan Group has supported the transformation of our leading consumer platform and reaching our goal of having a Masan product in every Vietnamese household,” said Seokhee Won, chief executive of Masan Consumer.
The announcement comes after Masan Group signed a strategic deal last month with Singapore-based Singha Asia Holdings, a unit of Thailand's Boon Rawd Brewery, to sell a quarter of Masan Consumer for US$1.05bn and one-third of its own brewery unit for US$50m.
