At a hearing on March 15, Lan asked for permission to sell Daewoo Hotel and many other assets to compensate for the consequences caused by Van Thinh Phat. According to Lan, Bong Sen JSC, the business run by her family, owns 93.6 percent of the shares of Daewoo Hotel Hanoi.

Lan was arrested in October 2022 on charges of misappropriating trillions of VND. She has been accused of paying bribes to various officials to conceal the bad financial situation of Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank, with which she has had close links.

5-star hotel

Built in 1996, Daewoo Hanoi is one of the most famous 5-star hotels in Hanoi. In its first operation phase, Daewoo was the largest hotel in the capital city, attracting Vietnamese and foreign businesspeople and politicians.

Daewoo Hanoi Hotel, with 400 rooms, is located in an advantageous position in the heart of Hanoi’s western gateway. It is part of the Daeha Commercial Center which covers three hectares.

The complex includes three buildings – the 5-star Daewoo Hanoi Hotel, Daeha Business Center, and Daeha Serviced Apartment on Thu Le Lakeside.

Daewoo Hotel is famous because it once served world leaders, including former US President Bill Clinton, Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Chinese President Hu Jintao.

However, the hotel’s business performance has not been smooth in recent years.

Despite low profitability, the asset value of the complex has been increasing year after year. The estimated value of the complex in 2012 was $430 million.

In early 2012, there was a mysterious takeover deal of Daewoo Hotel Hanoi after the holding company in South Korea went bankrupt. 

In April 2012, the Vietnamese partner in the joint venture that ran Daeha Commercial Center Hanel confirmed that it had bought back 70 percent of the capital contributed by Daewoo E&C.

Prior to that, another giant company from South Korea – the Lotte Group – and some foreign corporations were said to have been participating for a long time in an "underground battle" to acquire Daeha Complex. With powerful financial capability, Lotte was seemingly sure to win the case. 

Nevertheless, in the last minute, Daeha fell into the hands of Hanel thanks to a provision which said that partners in the joint venture had priority to buy the capital contributed by other partners. The transfer value was reported at $100 million.

Bong Sen Corp and Van Thinh Phat

After that, two new owners of Deaha complex appeared – HopT hanh Investment and Minerals JSC and Hop Thanh 1 Investment JSC.

However, Daeha once again changed hands when Bong Sen Corp, a subsidiary of Saigontourist, stated at a shareholders’ meeting in 2015 that it had successfully acquired 34.8 percent of Daeha’s stakes.

According to Saigontourist, the amount of money that Bong Sen Corp spent to acquire 51 percent of Daeha was VND3.65 trillion. As such, Daewoo's valuation was $7.16 trillion.

Bong Sen Corp is a well known name in the southern real estate market as the company owns restaurants and hotels located in advantageous positions in the central area of HCM City, such as Bong Sen Sai Gon (117-123 Dong Khoi street), Palace Saigon (56-66 Nguyen Hue street), Bong Sen Annex (61-63 Hai Ba Trung), Lemongrass Restaurant, Calibre, Bier Garden, Vietnam House, Ganh Bong Sen Buffet, and others.

After it was privatized, the company quickly cemented its position in the real estate sector thanks to M&A deals worth trillions of dong.

Though it owned many land plots in advantageous positions, Bong Sen’s business performance was always poor. In the first half 2023, it took a loss of VND280 billion (the loss was VND82 billion in the same period of 2022). The company also reported losses in 2021-2022.

By mid-2023, Bong Sen’s stockholder equity dropped by VND700 billion compared with the same period of the year before, to VND7 trillion. The ratio of outstanding bonds to stockholder equity was 0.69x, or VND4.811 trillion.

Bong Sen in 2023 was slow in paying the principal and interest of the bond lot worth VND4.8 trillion. The business was found to be on a list of businesses which had relations with Van Thinh Phat.

At an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on August 30, 2023, Bong Sen Corp President Vu Thi Hong Hanh said the assets used by Bong Sen as collateral in the dossier for issuing secured bonds included Daeha JSC’s shares.

Manh Ha