Lotte Innovate eyes data center, EV charging expansion in Vietnam with CMC Group

Lotte Innovate is pushing to expand its data center and electric vehicle charging businesses overseas, using Vietnam as its base. The company plans to broaden its business scope through a partnership with CMC Group, a Vietnamese IT firm.

Lotte Innovate signed an MOU with CMC Group in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Wednesday to formalize the cooperation.

CMC Group is a major Vietnamese IT company with more than 30 years of operating history. It operates across a range of fields including software development, AI, cloud computing and digital infrastructure, and maintains overseas offices in South Korea, Japan, the United States and Europe.

Under the agreement, the two companies will explore cooperation opportunities across five areas: hyperscale data centers, electric vehicle charging services (CPO), cybersecurity, offshore IT services and cloud computing.

In the data center segment, Lotte Innovate will look into collaboration opportunities in Vietnam's hyperscale data center market, drawing on its domestic experience in design, build and operations. Hyperscale data centers are large-scale facilities housing thousands of servers, built to handle the massive data processing demands of AI and cloud computing.

The company will also explore local EV charging opportunities by leveraging the capabilities of its subsidiary EVSIS. In the remaining areas, the two sides plan to examine ways to combine their respective expertise.

Lotte Innovate said the expansion was made possible by the experience it has built up in Vietnam's financial IT market. The company has been involved in building and operating IT systems for Vietnam's Agribank, as well as IT infrastructure projects related to Industrial Bank of Korea's Vietnam operations.

"Lotte Innovate is expanding its business scope on the strength of its financial IT experience in Vietnam and the data center and EV charging infrastructure capabilities it has developed at home," said Choi Jong-pil, head of Lotte Innovate's Vietnam subsidiary. "Through this partnership with CMC Group, we will strengthen our local business foundation and actively pursue new opportunities in future growth areas."