Vietnamese enterprises "upstream" to invest abroad

King Coffee conquers the US market. Photo provided by the company

According to economic experts, in the context that many foreign enterprises are pouring investment capital into Vietnam, many enterprises have used the strategy of "upstream", and "attack to defend" to help Vietnamese enterprises grow, keep the brand name and go to the world.

In the first nine months of 2022, there have been five new major projects granted investment certificates, which are Vines Energy Solutions Joint Stock Company projects to the United States, Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands with a total investment capital of each project worth more than US$34.68 million.

In addition, there were 15 times of projects with capital adjustment with total additional investment capital of over US$50.9 million, equalling 12% over the same period.

Many large projects adjusted to increase capital such as Vingroup's project in the US adjusted to increase by US$300 million; Indochina Rubber Development and Investment Co., Ltd. project in Cambodia increased by US$76 million and a project of Vinfast in Germany increased by US$32 million.

For the trend of investing abroad, recently, the Association of Foreign Investment Enterprises (VAFIE) opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City. VAFIE has a new task of acting as a focal point to assist Vietnamese enterprises in understanding the overseas investment environment (law, custom, culture) through a network of overseas Vietnamese in other countries.

Mr. Nguyen Mai, Chairman of VAFIE, said overseas investment of Vietnamese enterprises was changing positively with many big projects. In the future, the value of overseas investment of Vietnamese enterprises might exceed US$1 billion per year from about US$700 million per year at present.

Many projects in technology, rubber, and coffee had succeeded, transferring profits back home, contributing to balancing international payments, and increasing foreign exchange reserves. It is necessary to select good projects as well as carefully study the overseas investment environment to increase the success rate.

Notably, the “cake” of M&A in foreign markets has gone to many Vietnamese enterprises and corporations. Recently, Nutifood Nutritional Food Joint Stock Company announced that its member company, Nutifood Sweden (Sweden), owned 51% of the shares of Cawells - a Swedish dietary supplement brand that was established 8 years ago by founders with more than 30 years of experience in the industry.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Tran Bao Minh, Vice Chairman of Nutifood's Board of Directors, said: "Acquiring foreign enterprises is a challenge, but in order to enter the international market, find opportunities for development and competition, it is impossible without foreign M&A. In order to achieve this goal, Nutifood invested in the Swedish Nutifood Factory in 2019. Two years later, the Swedish Nutifood Nutrition Research Institute (NNRIS) gathered leading nutrition experts was established. M&A Cawells is the final strategy that Nutifood is aiming for when Cawells products are sold on Nutifood's distribution channel shelves in the country, Nutifood products inherit and take advantage of Cawells' customer base from Europe to Asia and the Middle East. Accordingly, products imbued with Vietnamese identity through Cawells will be promoted to the world such as Ngoc Linh ginseng, heritage coffee from the CADA hundred-year farm.”

According to Mr. Tran Bao Minh, a good product originating from Europe would quickly be accepted by the international market, it was important that this brand was dominated by Vietnamese enterprises, the cash flow would be brought back to Vietnam. In the future, Nutifood planned to buy some good brands from the US and Australia to fulfill its ambition to make Nutifood the leading nutritional food brand in Asia.

Nguyen Nam Hai, Chairman of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa), said that the coffee crop year 2021-2022 had a record export value of $3.9 billion, the highest level. Two outstanding highlights were the sharp increase in the rate of processed coffee and many Vietnamese coffee brands such as Trung Nguyen Legend, King Coffee, L'amant Café, etc. had reached out to the world, proving the growth of Vietnamese coffee companies.

Sharing about the journey to build a global brand, Ms. Le Hoang Diep Thao, CEO of King Coffee, said that King Coffee launched the first product not in Vietnam, but in the US. After that, King Coffee appeared in other international markets such as Korea, Singapore and then returned to Vietnam. That meant right from its inception, King Coffee had determined its vision to become a global brand.

Therefore, in addition to exporting coffee with a variety of products, suitable to the needs of each market, King Coffee also aimed to develop a chain of shops, and expand the franchise model to promote Vietnamese coffee quickly. Particularly in the US, King Coffee not only sells products in large supermarkets and E-Commerce systems but also developed a beautiful, Vietnamese-style shop model in one of the world's most attractive tourist destinations, Disney Parks outdoor entertainment and shopping center.