SK Group, the second largest corporation in Korea, has invested in two local pharmaceutical companies, Pharmacity and Imexpharm.

According to local media, the Pharmacity drug chain recently changed the information of its legal representative, from Christopher Randy Stroud to Nguyen Nhu Nam, from SK Group.

Pharmacity planned to open 5,000 stores, corresponding to the revenue milestone of $1.5 billion by 2025.

Currently, it is the largest pharmaceutical retail chain in Viet Nam in terms of scale, with 1,118 stores as of June 30, 2022, which is far ahead of FPT Retail’s rival Long Chau with 719 stores and An Khang of World mobile with 523 pharmacies.

The move is considered a step to pave the way for the announcement to invest $100 million in Pharmacity drugstore chain late last year.

According to the updated ownership report end of July 2022, SK Group is the largest foreign shareholder owning 14.5 per cent of the shares of Maroon Bells – the parent company that owns Pharmacity.

The group has just taken control of a large drug manufacturing company, Imexpharm (IMP), by increasing its ownership to nearly 54 per cent at the end of July.

Insiders told the media that if the deal goes according to plan, the investment in Pharmacity will be SK’s fourth largest investment in the country.

Previously, SK invested $470 million to buy a 9.4 per cent stake in Masan Group and $1 billion for a 6 per cent stake in Vingroup.

At the end of 2011, SK spent $340 million to buy a 4.9 per cent stake in The CrownX, a subsidiary of Masan, which owns Masan Consumer Holding and WinCommerce.

Earlier, SK Energy, a company of SK Group, held more than a 5 per cent stake in PV Oil, worth about $30 million.

With ThaiBev, GIC (Singapore), Mizuho Bank and a group of fund management companies such as VinaCapital, KIM (Korea), and Dragon Capital, the Korean group with a market capitalisation of nearly $200 billion in the fields of Energy, Pharmaceutical Health, Logistics and information and communication technology (ICT) is a new name for foreign investors.

IBM forecasts local pharmaceuticals as a new destination with a scale that may exceed $16 billion by 2026 as the population ages and the cost of healthcare increases, and health insurance coverage and life expectancy also increase. — VNS