Korean chaebol SK Group buys nearly 25% drug maker Imexpharm’s stake

SK Investment Vina III, an investment arm of the Korean conglomerate received the shares. However, the deal value has not been disclosed.

Imexpharm share has a market value at VND54,000. With the amount of share. SK Group could spend VND665 billion ($29 million) to acquire the stake.  

SK group bought most of the shares from Dragon Capital, with 11.3 million shares. The rest came from other investors include Kingsmead, Mirae Asset ...

SK Group has made a strong investment in Vietnam. The group spent $470 million for 9.4% stake in Masan Group and nearly $1 billion to buy 6% shares of Vingroup.

In addition, SK Energy, an arm of SK Group holds a 5.2% stake in PetroVietnam Oil Corporation.

Foreign investors are holding nearly 49% stakes at Imexpharm. Beside SK Group, its major investors include VinaCapital, 7%, KWE Beteiligungen AG, 14.3%, and Vietnam Pharmaceutical Corporation – Vinapharm, 22.9%, CafeF news website says.

Currently, several large pharmaceutical enterprises have raised foreign ownership limit to 49%, paving the road for foreign investors to hold controlling stakes in Vietnam’s companies. Taisho Pharmaceutical holds 51% of Hau Giang Pharmaceutical's shares while Abbott holds 51.7% of Domesco's shares and Stada holds 62% of Pymepharco.