Thailand’s Central Group, which earlier this year bought into Big C Vietnam has rejected news that the supermarket chain is in fact owned by Chinese people.

In a BigC Vietnam supermarket

Information recently circulated on social media, said to be from a lawyer working in Ho Chi Minh City, has pointed out that Big C is owned by three Chinese companies with one having 99.98 percent stake and the two others controlling 0.01 percent each. The “lawyer” also said although the legal representative of the supermarket is Thai, he is just an employee hired by the Chinese owners and does not have any share in Big C.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Central Group denied the information, saying the company is fully owned by a Thai family. Central Group said the so-called “evidence” that the “lawyer” showed has been photoshopped. The company was established in 1947 by Tiang Chirathivat and is still run by Chirathivat family, it said.

Central Group announced on April 29th this year that it had bought Big C’s operations in Vietnam from France's Casino Group at a cost of 1 billion euro (1.14 billion USD).

The company runs eight business categories in Vietnam with its retail business posting sales of Baht 40 billion (1.13 billion USD) in 2015, on par with sales in Europe.

Another Thai company, the consumer goods group TCC Holding Co. Ltd, in January this year completed its acquisition of the Vietnamese operations of Metro for 655 million euro (704.1 million USD)./.

Ha Thuong ( vnexpress.net )