Asian Retailers Eying Up Tasty Vietnam
An Asian retail investment wave is breaking on Vietnam’s shores.“The retail market in Vietnam offers potential for growth, which can be accelerated if the market is liberalised,” a spokesperson for Singapore-based CapitalMalls Asia told VIR.
“CapitaMalls Asia is open to exploring a shopping mall in Vietnam as part of an integrated development with CapitaLand, if any interesting opportunities arise,” the spokesman added.
CapitaMalls is the retail arm of its parent CapitaLand, which is now developing many housing projects in Vietnam.
Other larger retailers from Malaysia, Japan and Korea, among others, are lining up to get a slice of Vietnam’s retail pie. Firms include E-Mart, Aeon, Giant, Lotte and Parkson. In September 2011, Korea’s Lotte Mart announced it would pour another $50 million into Vietnam and open a third supermarket. This firm plans to open 30 supermarkets and plazas in Vietnam by 2018.
Meanwhile, Korean retail brand E-Mart has joined hands with U&I Corporation in Vietnam as it pushes to open 52 supermarkets, stores and distribution centres with total investment capital of $1 billion by 2020.
Vietnam’s retail sector is also heating up with participation of Japanese retailers. Familymart, in association with Phu Thai Group, will open about 300 stores in the country in the next three years. In addition, Hong Kong’s Dairy Farm just opened its first supermarket in Vietnam. Aeon, another Japanese convenience store brand, also plans to enter the Vietnam market in 2013.