Central sells stake in Big C Thailand to finance VN deal

An industry source said Central probably made this decision because of its ownership in Tops Supermarket and FamilyMart. Parts of their operations overlap Big C’s, he said, adding that hypermarkets are not Central’s business focus for Thailand. He also noted that the value of Big C Thailand was far higher than Big C Vietnam’s.
“Vietnam seems to be more interesting to Central, judging from the financial sums to be invested in Thailand and possible cannibalisation of Tops and FamilyMart,” the source said.
Central, the largest retail conglomerate in Thailand, accepted a tender offer from TCC Group. The deal, worth at least Bt50 billion, will help Central finance the purchase of Big C Vietnam.
Central declined to provide any details on the deal, saying its executives were travelling outside the country.
Central Group, which has interests spanning from hotels and resorts to property and restaurants, also bid when Casino Group was selling its Thai assets, eventually losing out to Charoen. He bought the French retailer’s majority 58.6-per-cent stake in Big C Thailand for 3.1 billion euros (Bt124 billion) in February.
Central in partnership with Nguyen Kim Group recently acquired Big C Vietnam from Casino for 920 million euros. Central Group chief executive officer Tos Chirathivat said the acquisition represented the strength of Central’s will to keep expanding its business in Asia. Operating for more than 18 years, Big C Vietnam has 43 stores nationwide, comprising 33 hypermarkets and 10 convenience stores, and 30 shopping malls. Total revenue in 2015 was about 586 million euros.
Quant, an independent financial advisory, applied eight methods to calculate the value of Big C Thailand, suggesting fair prices ranging from Bt152.7 to Bt265.7 per share. The highest price came from the comparison of the company’s price-to-earnings ratio and other domestic retailers’ in the past 12 months.