Banks rush to sell mortgaged assets to collect debts

Thinh Tri Trade JSC on October 4 announced the auction of the 7,851 square meter land plot in Huu Phu ward in district 9 in HCMC at the starting price of VND63 billion. 

The auctioneer was VAMC, while the assets for sale belonged to Thanh Pho Vang Company, which mortgaged the assets at Agribank for loans. The bad debt was transferred from Agribank to VAMC.

Prior to that, Lam Son Auctioning Company also auctioned assets for VAMC. Under the contract, the company authorized BIDV to sell assets to collect debts incurred by Thuan Thao Nam Sai Gon Company and 95 individual clients. 

Thuan Thao is owned by Vo Thi Thanh, a well-known businesswoman, dubbed ‘Yellow rose’ in Phu Yen province. The total value of the debt, both principal and interest, is VND2.378 trillion.

Another noteworthy auction involved Sacombank, which offered to sell a series of land plots and real estate projects worth tens of trillions of dong to collect debts. 

The land plots include valuable ones in the central area of HCMC, such as 61-63A Nam Ky Khoi Nghia in district 1, covering an area of 800 square meters. 

Also in September, Agribank and Agribank AMC had more than 10 auctions of properties with the starting price of VND470 billion. 

These included the land plot in Phu Huu ward of district 9, HCMC, which had the starting price of VND96 billion, the land plot at No 132 Nguyen Thai Hoc in Hanoi and a building on the land, VND69 billion.

VietinBank, one of the ‘big four’ in Vietnam, after the sale offer of a VND74 billion debt incurred by one of its client, has offered to sell many other debt items.

One of the biggest debts is the VND111 billion one incurred by NEM Trade JSC and the assets for sale are the company’s stocks (clothes, fashionable products).

SBV is optimistic about the debt settlement after the National Assembly’s Resolution No 42 was issued one year ago.

The resolution gives commercial banks and VAMC more ‘power’ to collect debts. In 2017 and the first eight months of 2018, VAMC settled VND48.017 trillion worth of debts, nearly equal to the value of debts settled in all four years before.

VAMC’s general director Doan Van Thang said the sale of debts depends on the debt quality and prices.

“There were assets we could sell just after one auction. In other cases, we could not find buyers after 10 auctions,” he said.

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