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Hidden tycoon wants to buy back Daewoo hotel
Daewoo hotel was the name that appeared on all local newspapers some days ago when it was transferred to a Vietnamese investor – Hanel. And the story about Daewoo has once again, become a hot topic when another businessman has sent word hinting that he wants to buy back the five star hotel.
Phan Xuan Can, President of Soho Vietnam, a real estate consultancy firm, said that a client of his wishes to buy Daewoo Hanoi now, one month after the news about the Daewoo transfer deal appeared on local newspapers.
The new buyer reportedly has hundreds of millions of dollars in hand and got ready to buy back the five star hotel.
Can said that he has taken first steps to contact involving parties. However, the formalities of the deal in which Vietnamese Hanel bought Daewoo from the South Korean investor have not been completed yet. Therefore, consultancy firms still cannot take necessary steps to negotiate about a new deal.
The information that Hanel, an electronics and telecommunication group in Hanoi, bought the 70 percent of stakes held by the South Korean investor, leaked out in late 2011 already. However, the deal only caught the special attention of the public in early 2012, when more details of the deal were discovered.
While insiders keep secretive, opinions from well informed circle said that the value of the affair is about 100 million dollars. Hanel, the Vietnamese partner in the joint venture that ran Daewoo hotel, came forward and represented a group of investors, successfully acquired the hotel. PetroVietnam Finance Corporation (PVFC) is believed to be one of the investors.
When hearing that Daewoo wants to sell its stakes in the project, a lot of investors, especially South Korean ones, have expressed their will to become the new owner of the project. Meanwhile, Hanel was not an impressive name, even if comparing with domestic investors.
However, a provision of the investment license stipulates that in case one of the parties in the joint ventures wants to transfer stakes, the other partners get the priority to take over the stakes.
Analysts have said that they can see a new wave of investment in high grade real estate projects in Vietnam, saying that there are many investors and groups of investors, who have big amounts of cash in hands, are considering injecting their money in the real estate sector through merger and acquisition deals. Especially, the investors do not have any problems in capital, because they can buy real estate projects with their own money, no need to borrow from banks.
Some investors reportedly have the cash worth up to 500 billion dong. Meanwhile, many others have 100-150 billion dong.
The “big guys” are believed to be the owners of businesses, general corporations, private conglomerates or Vietnamese overseas businessmen. Most of them did not have the opportunities to jump into the real estate market in the past, because they focused on their core business fields. However, nowadays, as the market conditions turn favorable, they decide to start business in new fields.
Besides, the investors could be professional real estate investors, who withdrew from the market in 2010, when the market turned frozen, now want to invest in special projects.
The main characteristic of the “big sharks” is that they do not make investment by following the crowd. They tend to target the projects with large land areas to develop schools, hospitals and hotels. They are also eyeing the office, shopping mall and house markets.
Thanh Dung
vietnamnet
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