VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam’s Cho Tot and ImSold, the largest online marketplace, will be officially taken over by Telenor, the telecom group from Norway, in June.

Telenor on May 11 announced it had reached an agreement with Schibsted, an international media group, under which it would take over Schibsted’s stake in joint ventures in Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam. 

Telenor will also withdraw from SnT, a joint venture with Schibsted in Latin America. Telenor expects net profit of $406 million from the deal.

Telenor has also reached an agreement with Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) on buying SPH’s stake in the joint venture in Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam for $110 million.

The transactions are expected to be completed by the end of June.

Vietnam’s Cho Tot and ImSold, the largest online marketplace, will be officially taken over by Telenor, the telecom group from Norway, in June.

After wrapping up the deals, Telenor will hold a 100 percent stake in Cho Tot (Vietnam), Mudah (Malaysia), OneKyat (Myanmar) and ImSold (Malaysia and Vietnam). 

Telenor, Schibsted and SPH will still be the co-owners of Kaidee in Thailand and Berniaga in Indonesia.

Bryan Teo, managing director of Cho Tot, said on Nhip Cau Dau Tu that there would not be any changes in key personnel and business strategy for Cho Tot. 

Telenor’s representatives have been on the board of directors of 701 Search, the holding company for Cho Tot, since 2013 and they have been actively contributing to the business strategy pursued by the company.  

Telenor believes that 701 is proceeding in the right direction and wants to maintain business as usual.

When asked about the recent appearance of ImSold, the website with the same owner as Cho Tot, a knowledgeable source said the two websites were targeting different groups of customers and they would cooperate to exchange content. 

The source said the co-existence of Cho Tot and ImSold was similar to Lazada and Zalora, which both belonged to Rocket Internet.

Bryan answered similarly to the question from Nhip Cau Dau Tu, saying that ImSold and Cho Tot have different target customers.

Regarding the performance of Cho Tot since the beginning of the year, he said the number of visitors increased by 10 percent a month in the last four months, while the number of classified ads rose by 20 percent a month.

In the latest deal, Telenor bought a 66.7 percent stake in joint ventures in Malaysia and Vietnam.

Bryan explained that Telenor paid $110 million to SPH to acquire a one-third stake in all of Cho Tot, Mudah, OneKyat and ImSold, with no clear price for the websites. 

As one of the world’s largest telecom groups with revenue of $15.3 billion in 2016, Telenor, owned by the Norwegian government, has the third largest capitalization value in the country.

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