Singaporean financial news site DealStreetAsia reported about the deal on Wednesday, but Seedcom has not issued an official statement confirming or denying it.
A source told VnExpress that it took place last December, around the time Golden Gate held an extraordinary shareholders meeting and decided to rescind its previous dividend distribution plan and use the money for some large projects and expansion both domestically and overseas in 2024 and 2025.
The company said the move would provide a strong foundation for breakthrough growth.
It has been closing underperforming outlets after a sluggish 2023, when its revenues fell 10% to VND6.28 trillion (US$246 million).
Its post-tax profit declined by 80% to VND139 billion, the lowest since 2017 except for 2020-21 during Covid.
The Coffee House, once a popular coffee chain, has also not been performing well.
Data from Vietdata shows its revenues fell by 11% to around VND700 billion in 2023 as it incurred losses in excess of VND100 billion in both 2022 and 2023.
It currently has 93 stores after shuttering over 50 since the end of 2023, most of them in major cities such as HCMC and Hanoi and their surrounding provinces.
It closed all outlets in Da Nang and Can Tho cities last year as part of a change in business strategy, CEO Ngo Nguyen Kha told VnExpress.
He said the firm was working to reduce costs and improve its financial performance.
He admitted it had been slow to keep up with customers’ changing preferences.
The Coffee House was among the first chains to invest in well-designed spaces, strong Wi-Fi and drinks suited to local tastes, positioning itself as a go-to spot for freelancers and students for working or studying.
It later shifted focus from physical stores to developing an online ordering app, which accounted for half of daily sales by the second half of 2024.
A report by iPOS, which provides management solutions to over 100,000 food and beverage businesses, said around 304,700 F&B establishments were in operation nationwide in the first half of 2024, a 3.9% fall from the end of 2023. At least 30,000 closed during the period.
CEO Vu Thanh Hung said these figures highlight the intense competition in the market, with short-lived establishments, which usually close within three months of opening, mushrooming since the end of the pandemic, especially in large cities.
Even well-established brands with large, loyal customer bases and steady revenues have not been immune to the challenges facing the industry, he added.
