이 기사는 2020년 03월 06일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Singapore-headquartered private equity (PE) firm Affirma Capital has invested in Vietnam-based online recruitment firm Sieu Viet.

According to industry sources on March 3, Affirma Capital has recently acquired a 25 percent stake in the Vietnam’s second largest online recruitment firm Sieu Viet for 35 million dollars.

The recruitment firm has around 30 percent market share in Vietnam and is operating four online platforms including TvN, VL24H, VietTotNhat, and MyWork.

Sieu Viet caters to 300 thousand companies out of 650 thousand total companies in the country. The number of job openings posted on the platform has gone up at an average annual growth rate of 32 percent over the past three years.

The company recorded its sales of around 19 billion won last year with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of around 8.4 billion won. Its sales and EBITDA have increased at an average annual growth rate of 31 percent and 26 percent, respectively over the same period.

“The Vietnamese entrepreneurial spirit has fuelled the development of the private sector in terms of the number of established enterprises, which serves as a catalyst for the expanding local job market. Sieu Viet is well-positioned to capitalize on these trends alongside increasing online penetration in the employment services industry,” said Thuy Dropsey, executive director at Affirma Capital.

The latest investment has been made jointly by Affirma Capital’s Korean unit and Vietnamese unit. Affirma Capital is an independent emerging market private equity firm owned and operated by the former senior leadership of Standard Chartered Private Equity. It has offices in Singapore, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Dubai, Mumbai and Seoul.

Affirma Capital’s Korean unit has invested in the Vietnamese company via its 256 billion won worth fourth fund, which was created in 2016.

The fourth fund has two South Korean companies in its portfolio including Sunwoo MT and Hwasung Cosmetics. Sieu Viet has become the fund’s third foreign portfolio company. Prior to the Sieu Viet deal, Affirma Capital invested in B2B-based travel platform TBO Group and Tirupati Group, a nutraceuticals-focused contract research and manufacturing company in India.

(By reporter Han Hee-yeon)