A store of FPT Corporation. (Photo: trangcongnghe.com) Hanoi (VNA) - FPT Corporation has reportedly sold its distribution businessFPT Trading to US-headquartered Synnex Corp, retail sources told zing.vn.
Thenews website reported that the US company is finalising the acquisition of FPTTrading, but provided no other details on its stockholding.
FPTCorp’s representative neither confirmed nor denied the information whencontacted by Viet Nam News, saying it would announce the information at aproper time.
On itswebsite, Synnex announced the acquisition of some companies in the NorthAmerican and Latin American markets in June.
Synnexis a Fortune 500 corporation and a leading business process services company,providing a range of distribution, logistics and integration services for thetechnology industry.
FPTTrading contributed about 30-45 percent of total revenues of FPT Corporation inthe past. The company is one of the top three biggest distributors of mobilephones, computers, tablets and accessories in Vietnam, together with Digiworldand Petrosetco. They import products and distribute to retailers such as FPTShop, Mobile World, Tran Anh, Nguyen Kim across the country.
In its2015 annual report, FPT Trading said it accounted for 21.4 percent of the mobilephone market share and 27.4 percent of the market share of other devices.
However,the big Vietnamese distributors have faced difficulties in recent years asgiant foreign mobile producers, such as Apple and Samsung, have appointed theirown distributors.
FPTTrading revenues declined 28 percent to 12.5 trillion VND (551 million USD) in2016, and its profit was down 48 percent year-on-year to 284 billion VND,accounting for just 9 percent of total profits of FPT Corporation in 2016.
Its2017 first-quarter profit also plummeted 40 percent to just 56 billion VND.However, some securities companies have forecast the company’s business wouldrecover towards the end of this year as the segment of technology devices hasexperienced a slight uptick.
At theFPT Corp’s annual shareholders’ meeting in March last year, shareholders urgedthe company to divest from retail and focus on technology andtelecommunications strengths.-VNA
