In the kitchens of millions of Vietnamese families, a bottle of Chin-Su chili sauce adds flavor to a meal, a steaming pack of Omachi noodles, a bottle of rich Nam Ngu fish sauce are familiar products, becoming a familiar part, attached to the rhythm of daily life... But behind those daily consumer products is a strategic chessboard being operated by the top financial minds at Masan Group.
When the Vietnamese stock market looks back on its 25-year journey of upheaval, it is impossible not to mention the story of Masan with the art of using capital market tools. They not only listed shares, they carried out classic M&A deals, attracted the most demanding foreign capital flows and from there built a path called “Point of Life”.
From a spice factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Masan has gradually built a strong consumer-retail ecosystem with a clearly targeted M&A strategy and a methodical restructuring process, always prioritizing long-term efficiency and sustainable value.
First, they use a strategic lens to look at the largest, most essential markets of nearly 100 million Vietnamese people, but they are still fragmented and unprofessional. Masan does not participate in asset trading activities such as real estate investment or short-term speculative activities. They only participate in areas with strong growth potential, effective and sustainable business models that have been proven by the private sector , and have the potential to build large-scale enterprises.
As a result of the research and selection process to date, Masan focuses on consumer categories with significant market size that they believe have large unmet needs due to operational inefficiencies and lack of innovation. These categories are segmented into Daily Needs (FMCG, retail of essentials and fresh/processed meat), Financial Needs (financial products and services) and Lifestyle Needs (F&B, telecommunications). The entire category represents approximately 80% of Vietnamese consumer spending.
The next step is when the big M&A deals happen.
Finally, Masan selectively invests resources, applies modern governance standards and mobilizes the combined strength of the entire ecosystem, aiming to elevate the merged companies to become solid links in the long-term development strategy. Over the years, Masan has invested in Vinacafé Bien Hoa, Vinh Hao Mineral Water, breweries, Saigon Nutrition Food Company, Masan MEATLife animal feed companies, Quang Ninh Mineral Water, VISSAN, Net Detergent JSC, 3F VIET, WinCommerce, Phuc Long Heritage and Mobicast.
"When buying shares in other companies, whether at the strategic level or controlling stake, Masan always determines not to buy revenue or profit, but to buy a "platform" to serve Masan's overall strategy. The platform here can be good technology, helping to create the best products at reasonable prices to serve consumers; the platform can also be a distribution network that will help Masan further expand its already very good distribution system, or help Masan build and maintain a strong Vietnamese brand," said the Group's 2024 Annual Report.
They invest in brands, people, technology, and distribution to accelerate their penetration into new categories and opportunities. Then they focus on operational turnaround of the acquired businesses.
Masan is proud that the brands, products, services and strategic initiatives that the Group has introduced and/or implemented since the acquisition are now accounting for the majority of the revenue and/or profits of the businesses acquired by Masan.
The result of this blueprint is an “empire” where each member is a market leader: Masan Consumer (MCH) on the fast-moving consumer goods front, WinCommerce (WCM) on the modern retail market, Masan MEATLife (MML) on the clean meat front, Phuc Long on the domestic tea/coffee chain market, and Techcombank (TCB) - a strategic ally - is one of the most dynamic and effective joint stock commercial banks in Vietnam.
To finance M&A deals and the journey to improve and strengthen its "fleet", Masan has entered the global financial arena. World-famous financial institutions such as KKR, TPG, Bain Capital, GIC, SK Group have all invested in Masan to turn a business with a charter capital of VND4,800 billion and total assets of VND7,000 billion (in 2009, when Masan was listed on the stock exchange) into a "giant" with a charter capital of over VND15,000 billion and total assets of over VND143,000 billion.
The company's annual report said that since listing on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE), Masan has raised nearly 5 billion USD in long-term capital to invest in strategic projects to help the company grow.
"We have allocated capital carefully by using the majority of the proceeds to invest and increase our ownership in existing businesses," the report said.
To convince international organizations to pour in billions of dollars, Masan must prove that it has a compelling enough story, a professional enough management team, and a transparent enough platform. They don’t just bring money, they also bring a “seal of guarantee” of international standards.
Masan is also one of the few private Vietnamese enterprises capable of issuing international bonds and listing on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
Meanwhile, the domestic stock exchange is the place to “unlock the value” of member companies when putting Masan Consumer or Masan MEATLife on the stock exchange. Masan Consumer - with a market capitalization of more than 131,000 billion VND is the largest FMCG enterprise on the Vietnamese stock exchange.
What is the purpose of those iconic M&A deals and those billion-dollar capital mobilizations? The answer lies in an inspirational phrase that Masan pursues: “Point of Life”.
Imagine your day. You stop by the WiN store at the foot of your apartment building, buy MEATDeli meat, WinEco vegetables or some consumer items like Chin-Su chili sauce for a convenient dinner, pay with a Techcombank card, then order a cup of Phuc Long milk tea. The sim you are using is from Wintel. All of this happens at a single location.
That is Masan's methodical strategy - serving the daily needs of consumers, not just selling a product, they want to own a platform, an ecosystem where services resonate and retain customers. Data from retail helps them understand what consumers want to eat. Convenient financial services help increase the number of visitors. A closed circle, maximizing value and building a consumer "fortress".
The path to building such an empire also puts Masan at risk of financial leverage. In addition, Masan’s complex structure can be a maze for investors, limiting their ability to understand the value of this “empire.” And for Masan itself, successfully integrating the culture and systems of acquired companies is always a huge management problem.
However, on December 18, 2024, a member of the group's mineral sector, Masan High-Tech Materials (MHT), completed the sale of 100% of its shares in HC Starck Holding GmbH to Mitsubishi Materials Corporation with a transaction value of 134.5 million USD.
The proceeds from this transaction will help MHT reduce its debt from approximately USD 670 million to USD 490 million. Combined with improved free cash flow from operations, Masan has reduced its financial leverage, bringing its Net Debt to EBITDA ratio from 3.9x at the end of 2023 to 2.9x at the end of 2024, affirming management’s commitment to maintain this ratio below 3.5x.
The deal is also aimed at reducing dependence on areas outside the consumer goods industry.
For the remaining issues, let's look back at the words of Chairman Nguyen Dang Quang: "Not every innovation is successful. What is important is that successful strategies account for a large proportion of our steps. The results we have achieved are the clearest proof and on this occasion, I would like to share in detail why Masan is truly touching the door to creating breakthrough values for consumers, shareholders and Masaners" .
The basis for Mr. Quang's words is the achievements that the "generals" on Masan's fronts have achieved up to now and in phase 2 of the Group.
Over the past decade, Masan Consumer has been the fastest growing FMCG company in terms of revenue and profit in the Asia-Pacific region.
WinCommerce is the largest modern consumer goods retail network in Vietnam, with 129 WinMart supermarkets and 3,699 WinMart+ stores in 34 provinces and cities nationwide by the end of 2024. More importantly, in 2024, WinCommerce, which was losing more than 200 million USD/year, has achieved a sustainable positive profit after tax. Masan MEATLife recorded its first profit from business operations since divesting its animal feed division.
In the meat segment, Masan MEATLife's average sales per point of sale doubled, and Masan Consumer's growth rate in the WinCommerce system increased by 84%.
Meanwhile, Phuc Long Heritage - since being taken over by Masan - has expanded its network to 184 stores outside the WinCommerce system, with an international standard store-level EBITDA margin of 26.5% in 2024.
“We have successfully completed the first phase of our five-year journey to build an integrated consumer-retail platform. Moving into the second phase, Masan will focus on consolidating spending market share and bringing in profits. And the only way for us to realize this is: “Digital transformation” , said Mr. Nguyen Dang Quang.
Accordingly, data and technology will be the factors that reshape the entire consumer-retail industry in Vietnam: from production efficiency, supply chain optimization, branding, innovation, consumer experience to retail modernization. Integrating software, data, AI, automation and connectivity into Masan's DNA is an important thing to do.
The Vietnamese stock market has just turned 25, which is also the 16th year that Masan has been on the stock exchange. Their story started from a familiar kitchen, through tense meeting rooms on Wall Street, to today aiming to realize the vision of owning 10,000 Points Of Life - a chain of modernized retail stores and traditional channels, serving more than 100 million Vietnamese consumers. They want to reposition the Vietnamese FMCG market and reach out globally, serving 8 billion consumers in the world.
Source: https://www.masangroup.com/vi/news/masan-news/Masan-Journey-of-Value-Creation.html
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