After two years, the long-awaited annual general meeting (AGM) of Sacombank was held last week, seeing Mr. Duong Cong Minh elected as the new Chairman for the 2017-2021 tenure.

Mr. Duong Cong Minh. Source: vietstock.vn

Backed by previous experience in real estate trading and banking, Mr. Minh, who is Chairman of the Him Lam Corp. and former Chairman of LienVietPostBank, is expected to speed up the settlement of collateralized assets and bad debts.

Formerly a major in the People’s Army of Vietnam, where he spent 13 years managing military enterprises, Mr. Minh has a dictatorial management style, keeping the decision-making power and critical knowledge to himself at Him Lam.

“Even though the next owner of Him Lam will be my son, the corporation itself is not a family-run business. I make all the decisions,” he said in a rare interview with local media.

He turned into a banker in 2008 by co-founding LienVietBank, three years before it was renamed LienVietPostBank in 2011. 

Soon after divesting all of his shares in the bank, he now replaces Mr. Kieu Huu Dung as Chairman of Sacombank.

“The Board of Directors and the Board of Management will try to bring this year’s pre-tax profit to VND1 trillion ($44 million),” Mr. Minh told the press on the sidelines of the bank’s AGM, drawing much attention from the bank’s shareholders, who earlier approved a pre-tax profit target of only VND585 billion ($25.7 million) for 2017.

In his first week at the helm, Sacombank saw two changes in its leadership. Ms. Nguyen Duc Thach Diem, former Deputy CEO, replaced Mr. Phan Huy Khang, who quit his position as CEO for personal reasons. Another Deputy CEO, Mr. Ha Ton Trung Hanh, lost his position and was elected as a new member of the bank’s Supervisory Board.

Sacombank saw better than expected business results during the first half of this year. Pre-tax profit was estimated at VND428 billion ($19 million), up 70.4 per cent year-on-year, mainly due to a surge in income from services, which stood at VND727 billion ($32 million), up 27.3 per cent year-on-year and accounting for 23.4 per cent of the bank’s total revenue.

Notably, VND845 billion ($37 million) in bad debts were handled during the first half, together with the recollection of another VND247 billion ($10.9 million) in debts sold to the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC). 

The bank also handled and recollected VND1.04 trillion ($45.7 million) in collateralized assets, reducing accounts receivable by 4.5 per cent since the end of last year.

It might be too early to discuss a potential merger between Sacombank and LienVietPostBank, but the deal is feasible with the appearance of Mr. Minh. 

For now, “Sacombank leaders will strive to finish the restructuring scheme in five years instead of ten years, as approved by the central bank,” Mr. Minh promised the 1,000 or so shareholders at the AGM, where many expressed their dissatisfaction with Sacombank’s failure to pay a cash dividend for the last two years.

VN Economic Times