<article>Pan Food, a subsidiary of <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.panpacific.vn/">Pan Pacific Corporation</a> , an agro-focused investment company, has made a public offer to buy 4.6 million shares of confectionery company <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.bibica.com.vn/home.html">Bibica</a>.</article>

Pan Food, a subsidiary of <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.panpacific.vn/">Pan Pacific Corporation</a> , an agro-focused investment company, has made a public offer to buy 4.6 million shares of confectionery company <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.bibica.com.vn/home.html">Bibica</a>.
With this offer, Pan Food hopes to gain a controlling stake of 51 per cent in the confectionery manufacturer. Currently, its ownership of Bibica is about 21.13 per cent, or 3.26 million shares.
Also read: <a href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/exclusive-pan-food-increase-stake-bibica-beyond-15-per-cent-2659/">PAN Food increases stake in Bibica to 21%</a>
The offered purchase price is VND56,800 ($2.65), which means Pan Food is willing to pay VND261 billion ($12.2 million) for the shares. Bibica stock price for Friday’s trading session ended at VND57,000.
Meanwhile, the Korean food corporation <a href="https://www.lotte.co.kr/eng/01_about/lotte_vision.jsp">Lotte</a> is the current largest stakeholder in Bibica, with a 44 per cent ownership in the Vietnamese confectionery maker, which owns popular brands like Goody, HURA and Chocolate Pie .It is not likely to loosen its grip on Bibica ownership.
This could be one of the biggest challenge to the Pan Food&#8217;s ambitions to own Bibica. Currently, apart from its direct stake of 21 per cent, it has holds an indirect stake of almost 16% in the Vietnamese confectionery company.
This is through two other subsidiaries of Pan Pacific, which are investors in  Bibica &#8211; Duong Mat Troi Investment (12.31 per cent) and <a href="http://aquatexbentre.com/">Aquatex Ben Tre</a> (3.59 per cent).
Even if these two shareholders sell their entire stakes to the companion company, Pan Food’s ownership in Bibica will increase to only 37.13 per cent. Meanwhile, acquiring nearly 30 per cent from other small shareholders seems like another difficult task.
Though,  if Vietnamese shareholders want to keep the company ownership within the country, they might team with Pan Food.
Bibica aims at a 30 per cent market share by 2018 and a 20 per cent growth for this year. It is planning to export its candy and biscuit products to other countries in the Southeast Asia, China and Japan.
Bibica along with two other popular confectionery firms <a href="http://www.kinhdo.vn/">Kinh Do</a> and <a href="http://www.haihaco.com.vn/">Hai Ha</a> together dominate the domestic market with a combined 42 per cent share, according to a research by Vietinbank Securities Company.
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<a href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/ifc-invests-6-5m-vietnams-pan-pacific-2281/">IFC invests $6.5m in Vietnam’s Pan Pacific</a>

Pan Food has made a public offer to buy 4.6 million shares of confectionery company Bibica to increase its holding to a controlling stake of 51 per cent.

VN's Pan Food, Korea's Lotte vie for controlling stake in Bibica

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VN's Pan Food, Korea's Lotte vie for controlling stake in Bibica

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