Masan Group, one of the largest private-sector conglomerates in Vietnam, is set to issue bonds worth four trillion dong (US$173 million) in three public offerings in January 2021 for business expansion and internal financing.

The non-convertible three-year bonds will carry coupons of 9.8%, 9.9% and 10% in the first year, and for every six months thereafter, the rates will be 3.8%, 3.9% and 4% per year, plus the average interest rate for individual savings at four banks – BIDV, Vietcombank, Vietinbank and Agribank, dubbed Vietnam’s Big Four.

The three offerings will come one after another, and are scheduled for completion in January.

In November 2020, the Ho Chi Minh City-based group finished its bond issuance of one trillion dong, bringing its total bond offerings for the year to 10 trillion dong and making it one of the top bond issuers in the Southeast Asian country.

The company also emerged on top of the league table for merger and acquisition deals in 2019-20. Among its biggest transactions was taking over the tungsten business of Germany’s H.C. Starck Group last June. Its mining arm Masan High-Tech Materials (MHT) then formed a strategic alliance with Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials Corp. to jointly develop a tungsten materials platform.

Masan also fully acquired VinCommerce, the retail arm of VinGroup, Vietnam’s largest private group, and bought into Net Detergent Joint Stock Company and 3F Viet JSC.