VietNamNet Bridge – The labor market is expected to see more and more merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in the time to come when more foreign human resource firms come to Vietnam, the market which has become more attractive in their eyes.

The labor market is expected to see more and more merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in the timeto come

According to a human resource firm headquartered in HCM City, foreign groups began eyeing the Vietnamese market in 2006. They keep watching the domestic labor market performance, finding the strong and weak points of domestic human resource firms and suggesting cooperation with the firms.

“The income from the job websites would keep rising when businesses now tend to recruit workers through human resource solution providers. This is the factor that attracts foreign investors,” he said.

The US CareerBuilder has bought Vietnam Online Network (VON) which owned one of the biggest job website kiemviec. The deal was made public in late February 2013.

The US firm stated that the purchase of VON would accelerate its steps towards the Vietnamese market, which is also an important part of the firm’s plan to expand the Asian market.

In April, Navigos, the owner of Vietnamwork announced it would sell stakes to enJapan, a Japanese investor. The value of the deal has not been made public, but sources said 90 percent of stakes would be sold for $22 million.

Meanwhile, other foreign groups have been quietly approaching domestic firms and suggesting the merger and acquisition deals. The market leading domestic firms have been most wanted, because they have had stable clients, website visitors and clear positioning.

A senior executive of timviecnhanh, one of the job websites, said some foreign partners have suggested the cooperation, but the board of directors has refused the deal.

“If we need someone to cooperate with, we would find a Vietnamese firm,” he said.

The executive said that five years ago, laborers mostly looked for job opportunities on print newspapers, while they now tend to seek job information on online websites.

Vietnam has emerged a potential market in the eyes of foreign human source solution providers with the young population, high percentage of people at working age and the increasingly high number of Internet users.

A report of the Vietnam Internet Center shows that Vietnam had had 31 million people using Internet by the end of 2012, accounting for 35.5 percent of the total population.

Sources said that JobStreet, the biggest guy in the field in Asia Pacific, is also eyeing some job websites in Vietnam.

Do Thanh Nam, Chair of Win-Win Company, noted that it’s now the right time for foreign firms to negotiate and make deals with domestic firms. The gloomy economic performance is the great opportunity for the investors to buy firms at reasonable prices.

Like the businesses operating in many other business fields, human resource firms are also facing big difficulties. The banking system, for example, has cut down 30 percent of its workforce. However, the current difficulties are just temporary, while the demand for workers would increase once the national economy recovers. This means that the great opportunities for human resource firms are still ahead.

VNE