Where is retail market

The municipal People’s Committee has ordered continued closure of dance halls, bars, karaoke parlours, pubs, beer clubs, and facilities for indoor sports activities like gym, fitness, billiards, and yoga centres. Others not included in this list can be reopened but have to carry out all anti-coronavirus measures regulated by health authorities. Besides, the set of safety assessment criteria in COVID-19 prevention and control must be seriously implemented in the fields of tourism, transport, and restaurant services, as well as at wholesale and retail markets, supermarkets, trade centres, relic sites, and libraries. A distance of at least one metre from each other must be kept in those activities, and food service supplying establishments are not permitted to serve more than 30 people at the same time, according to the administration. Meanwhile, religious activities and rituals at local places of worship can take place with no more than 50 participants at the same time. They also have to comply with other disease prevention measures regulated by the health sector, the People’s Committee said. Earlier, the committee also permitted schools across the city to be reopened from March 1. On February 23, the lockdown on an apartment block in Ward 13 of Tan Binh district was lifted. This was the last of the 35 sealed-off sites that had their COVID-19 lockdown removed in HCM City. Source: VNA …

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Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn is the latest big tech name to invest in Vietnamese startup Loship Tallinn’s investment in Loship puts him on a list of global tech leaders betting on Vietnamese tech startups, which has shown resilience and growth even amidst COVID-19. Thus, Loship is poised to become a prominent tech figure for any seasoned investor looking at Vietnam, according to Loship CEO Trung Hoang Nguyen. "MetaPlanet’s investment will help us build a much stronger image of Loship as a National Startup Hero. The competition will be much steeper in the long term, and we hope to pick up deep tech insights from Jaan Tallinn that can be applied to the Vietnam market,” he further opined. The latest fundraising, which is part of the startup’s Series C round, comes just four months after its undisclosed bridge round led by Vulpes Investment Management. The new funding would fuel Loship's path to becoming Vietnam’s leading one-hour-delivery e-commerce platform. “We already have a winning playbook, and we look to expand it to more markets. Secondly, we know what we want to do with our product, and there are just 1 per cent of things that have been done. So, a huge portion of the funding will be poured into upgrading our app and increasing our tech capability. Also, we will ramp up marketing strategies to strengthen our foothold in the existing markets,” stated the CEO. Founded in 2017, Loship traces its roots back to Lozi , a review app allowing users to find food, beverage, and coffee shops, before transitioning into a one-hour-delivery services platform. Loship had earlier closed its Series A and B rounds from several investors, including South Korea’s Smilegate Investment, Hana Financial Group, DTNI, Golden Gate Ventures, before announcing its Vulpes Investment Management-led bridge round in October 2020. The round was joined by DAAL Ventures and Wealth Well (Saudi Arabia-based VC Firms), Eucagi Ventures (Nigerian VC Firm), KI Group, and the vice …

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Many offers to sell coastal hotels in Da Nang have appeared on real estate forums these days. Most of them are located in districts Son Tra and Ngu Hanh Son. A hotel put up on sale On just one real estate website on February 22 many ads were listed. A 4-star hotel on Vo Nguyen Giap street, 600 square meters, with 19 stories, 125 rooms and 2 conference rooms is offered at VND440 billion. Hotels on the major streets of Ha Bong, Tran Bach Dang, Ho Nghinh, Vo Nguyen Giap and Ho Xuan Huong are offered at tens or hundreds of billions of dong. Hoang Lam, the owner of a hotel on Tran Bach Dang street, said accommodation service providers have been hit hard by Covid-19. “We have been struggling to survive by cutting costs. However, as capital is getting exhausted, hotel owners have to liquidate assets to pay bank debts,” he said. “Selling hotels is unavoidable as there is no source of revenue, and the operation cost is high,” he said. Do Van Hien from Dana Hotel, a broker, said a lot of hotels in Da Nang have been put up for sale since the second Covid-19 outbreak. “The hotels for sale are 2-4-star. The prices have fallen by 20 percent and buyers are mostly from northern provinces,” Hien said. According to Hien, 3-star hotels are priced at VND20-100 billion, while 4-star hotels are at least VND280 billion. The value of hotels depends on the locations, area, quality, numbers of rooms and brands. The transactions of 4-5-star hotels, which have strong brands, are confidential. Hotel owners only work with prestigious brokers, and buyers have to prove their financial capability. Hien said no one wanted to sell hotels in 2016-2019 because they could make a high profit from the business. But since 2020, guests are coming in dribs and drabs, and operation costs and loan interest rates are high. Cao Tri Dung, chair of the Da Nang Tourism Association, admitted that tourism services have become nearly frozen and many hotels have been put up on sale. …

[Read more...] about Unable to cover expenses during Covid-19, owners sell hotels at cheap prices