Thai Tycoon Makes Offer to Buy Stake in Vietnam's Largest Beer Maker

One of Thailand's richest tycoons is looking to buy a quarter of Vietnam's largest beer maker. If the bid is successful, it would be a multi-million-dollar deal and one of the largest foreign investments in the Asian frontier market.

Vietnam Beverage Co., a unit of Singapore-listed Thai Beverage PCL has submitted a bid to acquire at least a 25% stake in state-owned Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp., known as Sabeco, according to a statement from the Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade on Tuesday.

Thai Bev, which is owned by billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, will have to pay about US$2.25 billion for the stake in Sabeco, which currently has a market capitalization of US$9 billion.

The statement didn't provide details of the offer price, but the government in late November said that it was selling a 53.6% stake in Sabeco via auction. It had set a base price of 320,000 Vietnamese dong (US$14.05) per share.

The Vietnam government currently owns about 90% of Sabeco.

-- Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 11, 2017 21:36 ET (02:36 GMT)