South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group has agreed to buy a 9.5 percent stake in Masan Consumer Holdings Co., the holding company of Vietnam’s major conglomerate Masan Group, for $470 million as part of efforts to grab a bigger piece in the Southeast Asian market.

SK Group said Wednesday it struck a strategic alliance with Vietnam’s Masan Group to jointly seek out new businesses and pursue merger and acquisition deals in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries.

Masan Group is one of Vietnam’s largest conglomerates with $1.66 billion in sales last year. Its core business is food and beverage but it has recently been expanding its portfolio to include other high-growth sectors, including mineral resources, livestock and finance. It is Vietnam’s seventh-largest company by market cap with 94.9 trillion dong ($4.07 billion).

In August 2017, five SK Group affiliates teamed up to form a joint investment entity focusing on the fast-growing Southeast Asian market. The latest purchase in Masan Group marks the new SK entity’s first investment in the region.

The move was reportedly made in hopes of creating bigger synergy with SK Materials Co., a manufacturer of specialty gases used in semiconductors and display panels. “While Masan Group’s mainstay is food, it has recently been branching out to natural resources, including tungsten and other minerals,” according to an investment bank source.

By Kang Doo-soon and Kim Hyo-jin

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