Million dollar deals
For many years, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy has been famous in the investment world when he participated in the first 3 seasons of Shark Tank Vietnam and was nicknamed Shark Thuy. A series of investments in companies on television have made this businessman famous.
In season 1 of Shark Tank Vietnam (early 2018), investor Shark Thuy heated up the show and made a strong impression when she committed to investing 15 billion VND (in exchange for 45% of shares) to save the startup project of the soybean store chain Soya Garden.
The proposal was made when no one "put down money" because of concerns that the chain of 8 stores at that time had very little revenue, only about 300 million VND/month, had only been established for a year and a half, and the young founders were quite confused when asked about the business situation and strategy.
Soya Garden then increased its capital from 30 million to 20 billion VND and a year later to 100 billion VND. However, after 3 years, from a chain of 50 stores, Soya Garden almost disappeared in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The co-founder left Soya Garden. This was a failed deal for Shark Thuy.
This guest of Shark Tank Vietnam also has many famous investment deals, such as the startup specializing in 5D role-playing games that attract young people, We Escape; the volunteer tourism model Volunteer For Education; the video recording and sharing application Umbala; the coffee shop model that combines English teaching Talks Café 100% English; the project to produce multi-purpose wheelchairs for the disabled...
Millions of dollars have been pumped into projects, but most have had no results, especially after 2 years of Covid. What remains is that Shark Thuy's name is getting hotter and hotter.
Controversy at Vietnam's largest English center chain
Shark Thuy's greatest success is probably building the largest chain of English centers in Vietnam: Apax English and EnglishNow.
For a long time, Apax English and EnglishNow were considered the “golden goose” of Apax Holdings (IBC) - a member of Shark Thuy's Egroup Corporation. By the end of 2022, Shark Thuy owned 6.17% of IBC's capital, while Egroup held nearly 16.8%.
According to the introduction, Apax Holdings holds 66.36% of capital at Apax English JSC (Apax English/Apax Leaders). At its peak, this system had more than 120 centers nationwide under the Apax Leaders brand, spread across more than 30 provinces and cities with about 120,000 students.
In the years before the pandemic, Apax Holdings had a period of hot growth, continuously opening centers. Revenue reached 1,000 billion in 2018 and doubled to 2,000 billion in 2020.
But after the Covid-19 pandemic, a series of Apax Leaders English centers were accused by teachers of owing salaries, while parents rushed to demand money.
In an explanatory letter sent to the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) in November 2022, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy said that after reviewing, checking and verifying, the results showed that the issues raised by the press (about many centers being accused by teachers of owing salaries and parents demanding money) are problems of Apax English; Apax English's leaders have been coordinating with Apax Holdings to have appropriate solutions.
Hot growth in education sector, stuck in real estate
It can be seen that after seeing the opportunity in the billion-dollar education sector, Shark Thuy pushed Apax Holdings to grow rapidly, expanding the system of English training centers at an extremely fast speed and becoming the largest English chain in Vietnam.
However, the pandemic and social distancing regulations have caused difficulties for educational centers, including Apax. In 2022, IBC still recorded increased revenue but started to incur net losses. Debt increased rapidly.
Not only is IBC losing money and heavily indebted, Shark Thuy's Egroup is also in debt with bonds and is unable to pay.
At the end of 2022, in a live exchange at VietNamNet, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy himself admitted that Apax English had developed too quickly.
The businessman from Hanoi shared that since mid-2019, he had planned to reduce borrowing costs, restructure from debt to capital raising, and approach investment funds and raise capital in 2020. However, the Covid-19 pandemic occurred, and that plan was also changed.
Mr. Thuy added that on the winning streak, the company went quite fast and encountered a big stumble in 2019. This was also the time when Egroup opened the most English centers, which had to close after operating for a very short time. At one point, the company lost nearly 1,000 billion VND in 6 months. Interest expenses and financial costs made Egroup "extremely difficult".
Shark Thuy's Apax Holdings has more difficulties when entering the real estate market. The real estate market has been sluggish and almost frozen since 2022, pushing many businesses into a state of illiquidity.
After 3 seasons participating in Shark Tank Vietnam, from 2017-2019, at the end of 2022, Shark Thuy was looking for investors to save herself.
Mr. Thuy has tried to work with investment funds to raise capital, but it seems to be unsuccessful.
Over the past 2 years, Shark Thuy’s business has restructured, using both real estate and household appliances to pay off debts for investors. However, Apax Holdings still cannot escape the mud. IBC shares are at “ice tea” level, below 2,000 VND/share, down more than 10 times in a short time.
IBC was pushed from HOSE to Upcom, but its shares were still suspended from trading due to serious violations of information disclosure obligations.
According to information from the Ministry of Public Security, on March 25, the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Agency has just issued an order to temporarily detain Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy (Shark Thuy), legal representative of Egroup Education Corporation and Egame Investment and Distribution Corporation to investigate the act of fraud and property appropriation.
Immediately after 'Shark' Thuy was arrested, this morning Egroup Education Corporation issued a statement stating that Mr. Thuy had delegated the authority to manage and all ownership of shares, shareholder rights of the corporation and its subsidiary Egame to Ms. Nguyen Thi Dung. Ms. Dung is Mr. Thuy's younger sister, currently a member of the Board of Directors of Egame and a member of the Egroup leadership board.
"Mr. Thuy has been and is continuing to cooperate with the authorities in the investigation to clarify related issues," the statement said.
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