The announcement by Masan Group Corporation on Wednesday means it now controls VCM Services and Trading Development Jsc (VCM), which wholly owns VinCommerce, the operator of 2,600 VinMart supermarkets and VinMart+ convenience stores.

Conglomerate Vingroup established VCM in August 2019 and it has a charter capital of VND6.44 trillion ($277.8 million).

Vingroup and Masan had announced in December they would merge VinCommerce and agriculture unit VinEco with Masan Consumer Corporation to form a new entity which would be operated by Masan.

Vingroup is now a minor shareholder in the company that runs Vietnam’s largest retail chains. The price of the acquisition has not been revealed.

Truong Cong Thang, Chairman of Masan Consumer Corporation, said earlier the deal was made to ensure that a Vietnamese brand would continue to dominate the domestic retail market.

Vietnam's total revenue from retail trade and services reached VND3,751 trillion ($161.83 billion) last year, up 12.7 percent from 2018, according to the General Statistics Office.

With a fast growing middle class, Vietnam’s retail market is forecast to maintain explosive growth, reaching 27 percent compound annual growth rate by 2020, according to a Deloitte report.