Establishing Vietnam’s market potential for investment for Dragon Capital

By Thue Thomasen

When integrated investment group Dragon Capital decided to enter the renewable energy sector with its partner Green Energy Vietnam, they needed a better understanding of the market potential. At the time this was an unprecedented attempt to create a whole new industry within Vietnam.

ADDRESSING THE ISSUES

With an innovative vision for Vietnam´s future sustainable energy production, Green Energy Vietnam and Dragon Capital embarked on a journey to develop locally produced biofuels. To examine the market potential and competitive environment, Decision Lab was brought on board to map the market’s realities with agile and connected market research.

Using the top-down approach, Decision Lab´s consultants identified the three logical sub-questions:

What is the current market demand?
What is the best method of distribution?
What is the market acceptance of these new products?

THE APPROACH

During the study, Decision Lab performed more than 500 telephone interviews with business owners and managers in six provinces of Vietnam. The process of gaining trust and achieving a high success rate was accomplished by using a team of specialised interviewers and building relationships with interviewees.

IMPACT

The final result became an important element in the commercial due diligence of the Green Energy project and the insights achieved from the survey were included in the investment memorandum as an objective third-party assessment of the market potential.

Decision Lab supports several investor groups in accessing market opportunities and improving performance of portfolio companies.