Mizuho Asia Partners invests $9.3mn in Vietnamese choco pie maker
Monday, April 11, 2016, 11:46 GMT+7
A Singapore-registered fund management company has invested more than US$9 million in a Vietnamese confectionery firm known for challenging South Korea’s Orion in the snack segment of choco pies.
The $9.3 million investment from Mizuho Asia Partners will enable Pham Nguyen Confectionery to expand production, Pham Ngoc Thai, president and CEO of the Vietnamese company, has said.
Mizuho Asia Partners, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group, is the operator of Mizuho ASEAN PE Fund, which focuses on investment in small- to medium-sized enterprises in Southeast Asia.
Pham Nguyen Confectionery will use the financial package to boost product development and marketing, and expand their distribution network countrywide, Thai added.
The investment into Pham Nguyen is among several deals aimed at nurturing small- to medium-sized businesses in Southeast Asia, said Kota Igarashi, managing director of Mizuho Asia Partners.
Through such investment, the fund manager will help Southeast Asia establish connections and cooperation with experienced firms in Japan, he added.
The maker of such popular sweet snacks as ChocoPN, Phaner Pie, Limo, and Otto, Pham Nguyen currently distributes products to 52,000 retail stores across the country.
The company focuses on making choco pies, or sweet snacks consisting of two small, round layers of cake with marshmallow filling that are then covered in chocolate. In Vietnam, choco pies were initially introduced by the Seoul-based Orion Confectionery Co. Ltd. in around 2005.
Pham Nguyen has one production facility in Ho Chi Minh City and another in the neighboring province of Long An, and is scheduled to put another in the northern province of Hung Yen into operation by July 2016.
In 2015 Pham Nguyen logged more than $30 million in revenue and an annual growth rate of 15 percent, according to newswire Nhip Cau Dau Tu (Investment Bridge).
The company has targeted earnings of VND739 billion ($32.99 million) this year.
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