Vietnam-based cinema operator Beta Media and Japan’s biggest cinema chain Aeon Entertainment have launched a new joint venture, which is considering investing 5 trillion dong ($198 million) in building more than 50 premium cinema complexes by 2035, as well as developing a film production business under the Aeon Beta brand.
The first Aeon Beta Cinema is expected to open in 2025, Beta said in a statement.
In Vietnam, Beta Media targets the low-cost segment, having ventured into small provinces besides big cities across the country.
“Alongside the new Aeon Beta Cinema brand developed by the joint venture, the Beta Cinema brand will continue to be promoted by Beta Media to serve the mass market segment in Vietnam,” it said.
Founded in 2014 by Bui Quang Minh, a local Shark Tank judge known as Minh Beta, the company has developed 20 Beta cinemas nationwide. A quarter of these outlets have been developed through franchising, it added.
Beta Media claimed it clocked a 150% revenue growth from 2019 to 2023.
Meanwhile, Nobuyuki Fujiwara, president and representative director of Aeon Entertainment, said: “Our long-term goal has always been to expand into the Asian market. This initial step in Vietnam has been made possible.”
Beta Media has raised at least $10.5 million from private equity (PE) investors including Vietnam Investment Group; Blue HK Investments, a PE fund with offices in UK, Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City; and Daiwa PI Partners.
It is an arm of Beta Group, whose other businesses include home rental Aplus, which raised a $2-million financing round led by local PE firm Asia Business Builders in 2022; and Crimson Business Institution, which provides post-graduate education programmes.
In the cinema space, South Korean chaebols are the biggest players in Vietnam, with CGV operating over 80 outlets and Lotte Cinema with 45. Local companies include Galaxy (with about 20 cinemas) and BHD (10).
Japan’s AEON Group has been present in Vietnam since 2011 and is currently among the largest retailers in the country.