Vietnam’s leading egg producer to sell 25 pct stake to entrepreneur

“The decision was made after more than a year of both getting to know each other,” Pham Thi Huan, its chairwoman, said.

Tran Viet Hung, the businessman, who has been based in Singapore for 10 years, will also become the company’s director general.

The deal is expected to be completed this month.

Huan said age and poor health condition prevent her from keeping up with the market and so she decided a younger partner would run the company and formulate new strategies for its development.

The deal will also include a 50-year trademark protection commitment for the Ba Huan brand.

Saying family-run businesses are no longer appropriate in agriculture, Huan added, “Having a young person running the company is like a breath of fresh air, giving it better interaction and competitiveness.”

In 2018, Ba Huan signed a $32.5 million deal with investment fund VinaCapital for a 34 percent stake, but the company decided to part ways soon afterward.

Ba Huan later accused the fund of trying to take over its brand and management by demanding 22 percent interest on its investment, three times the bank deposit interest rate, or, failing that, handing over at least a 51 percent stake.

Ba Huan, founded in 2001, has a 30 percent share of the Vietnamese egg market. It sells 1.7 million eggs a day besides 15,000 chickens.