FPT reportedly selling distribution business

The news website reported that the US company is finalising the acquisition of FPT Trading, but provided no other details on its stockholding.

FPT Corp’s representative neither confirmed nor denied the information when contacted by Viet Nam News, saying it would announce the information at a proper time.

On its website, Synnex announced the acquisition of some companies in the North American and Latin American markets in June.

Synnex is a Fortune 500 corporation and a leading business process services company, providing a range of distribution, logistics and integration services for the technology industry.

FPT Trading contributed about 30-45% of total revenues of FPT Corporation in the past. The company is one of the top three biggest distributors of mobile phones, computers, tablets and accessories in Vietnam, together with Digiworld and Petrosetco. They import products and distribute to retailers such as FPT Shop, Mobile World, Tran Anh, Nguyen Kim across the country.

In its 2015 annual report, FPT Trading said it accounted for 21.4% of the mobile phone market share and 27.4% of the market share of other devices.

However, the big Vietnamese distributors have faced difficulties in recent years as giant foreign mobile producers, such as Apple and Samsung, have appointed their own distributors.

FPT Trading revenues declined 28% to VND12.5 trillion (US$551 million) in 2016, and its profit was down 48% year-on-year to VND284 billion, accounting for just 9% of total profits of FPT Corporation in 2016.

Its 2017 first-quarter profit also plummeted 40% to just VND56 billion. However, some securities companies have forecast the company’s business would recover towards the end of this year as the segment of technology devices has experienced a slight uptick.

At the FPT Corp’s annual shareholders’ meeting in March last year, shareholders urged the company to divest from retail and focus on technology and telecommunications strengths.