VietNamNet Bridge – Bianfishco, which owed money right and left, and people were dead sure would go bankrupted one day, has been rescued. No one can point out why Bianfishco has been saved from sinking, while there are thousands of other businesses which are also in big difficulties like Bianfisco.

Bianfishco, which reportedly incurred big losses, could not pay money to farmers and owed the huge debts of trillions of dong to commercial banks, has suddenly revived after it received the support from the Ministry of Finance’s Debt and Asset Trade Company (DATC), a powerful state owned business.

In local newspapers these days, the images of Bianfishco’s managing director, who faced the debt chasing by farmers have been replaced with the images of the director paying money to farmers with smile on his lips.

The fact that Bianfishco has resumed its operation while it does not have to sell the factory worth 120 million dollars has excited people, who believe that not only Bianfishco, but the whole seafood industry has been saved.

Meanwhile, financial investors have said that Bianfishco was too lucky when it received the “favor” from the Ministry of Finance, commercial banks and the support of local authorities, which helped it narrowly escape the death.

They have every reason to believe that Bianfishco is too lucky. Tens of other seafood companies have been on the verge of bankruptcy, or stopped operation because of the insolvency, but only Bianfishco has got the special bail package from the Ministry of Finance. The tens of seafood companies did not catch the attention from DATC or the ministry.

Besides Bianfishco, Vinacafe Buon Ma Thuot, which incurred the heaped up debt of one trillion dong, is another lucky business.

Vinacafe Buon Ma Thuot is a subsidiary of Vinacafe, which always leads enterprises in terms of the coffee exports which provided 90 percent of the coffee exports of the whole Vinacafe system.

However, unlike Bianfishco, Vinacafe Buon Ma Thuot only got famous when the information about its big debts appeared on local newspapers.

Though Vinacafe Buon Ma Thuot was not famous, and was not a big guy, Vinacafe, the parent company, still decided to take actions to get Vinacafe Buon Ma Thuot out of danger.

Vinacafe understands that saving Vinacafe Buon Ma Thuot means saving itself. This would help reassure subsidiaries and persuade them that the parent company always backs their subsidiaries. Vinacafe would come forward to work out with commercial banks on freezing the debts, which would help Vinacafe Buon Ma Thuot resume its operation. In other words, the debts of the subsidiary would be paid by the parent group.

Vinacafe has no other choice, because it may not be able to survive, if the subsidiary collapses.

Not only Vinacafe Buon Mat Thuot, but many other big coffee exporters have also been fallen into the similar difficult situation. INEXIM Dak Lak, for example, is owing 350 billion dong. In order to rescue the company, the Dak Lak provincial authorities would have to come forward and follow the same way that Vinacafe chose to rescue Vinacafe Buon Ma Thuot.

Analysts believe that the scenario is likely to occur, because INEXIM Dak Lak is a state owned enterprise, put under the management of the Dak Lak province. If INEXIM Dak Lak goes bankrupted, this would show the bad management of the leaders and the failure of the locality.

The reports released by competent agencies showed that tens of thousands of businesses in the fields of seafood, coffee, garment and textile, steel and wooden furniture, have died in the economic downturn. However, only a few of them have been rescued with the bails given by local authorities or the government, which are described as the special gifts reserved only for the minority of businesses.

However, everyone understands that “no lunch is free.”

Quynh Van