S. Korea's Orion sees brisk sales growth in Vietnam, Russia

South Korea's confectionary giant Orion Corp. has seen brisk sales growth this year, pushing out rival CJ CheilJedang Corp. to solidify its dominance as the domestic leader in the food and beverage industry.

On Wednesday, Orion's stock closed at 138,500 won ($105), down 1.3% with the highest market cap in the sector of 5.4 trillion won. Its share price has jumped 41% over the past year and its market cap has risen significantly.

CJ CheilJedang, which was the country's top food company by market cap, saw its stock price fall 16.7% over the same period. With a market cap of 4.8 trillion won, CJ fell further behind Orion after the latter on Feb. 23 took over the No. 1 spot in the sector.

Given stagnant growth of the domestic food and beverage market, the factor causing the share prices of both companies to diverge was whether they found cash cows abroad. Last year, Orion entered Vietnam and saw sales rise 38.5% and did even better in its new market of Russia, which marked brisk growth of 79.4%.

"Improved consumer demand in China and better results on the Korean, Vietnamese and Russian markets are expected to reflect on Orion’s share price," Hi Investment & Securities analyst Lee Kyung-shin said.

Write to Sang Hoon Sung at uphoon@hankyung.com