Binh An Seafood Co (Bianfishco) will hand over its fish processing plant
to the farmers to whom it owes hundreds billions of dong if it misses the
payment deadline on August 29, promised its acting general director.
The pledge was released after a
brief meeting between the acting general director Nguyen Van Tri and
representatives from dozens of farmers who pitched camps in front of Tri’s
villa in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on Sunday, according to newswire
Vnexpress.
The two sides also reached an
agreement on the repayment so that the farmers will not gather at the villa to
shout out via loudspeaker to demand the debts back.
Tri said the many of Bianfishco’s
shareholders owe the debts, not just his family alone.
The company will take priority in
repaying the debts to the farmers, Vnexpress quoted Tri as saying. The farmers
sold their catfish to Bianfishco many months ago without being paid any money
until now.
Bianfishco had sent paper notices
to local banks that hold stocks mortgaged by the former general director, Pham
Thi Dieu Hien – Tri’s wife, so that they can contact the company for final
settlement procedures, Tri said.
The firm will hold a press
conference upon receiving the new certificate of business registration. The new
license will see the Saigon – Hanoi Commercial Bank Joint Stock Bank (SHB)
emerge as the largest shareholder with 50 per cent of shares.
Soon the company will have cash
to repay the farmers, and join hands with Debts and Assets Trading Corp and
other banks to streamline the debt clearance procedures and bring the firm back
on track, Tri added.
Earlier, after it was rumored
that Bianfisco could not obtain the new certificate of business registration,
the farmers started to ramp up their movement with banners and loudspeakers
demanding for debt repayment in front of the villa of Tri and Hien.
The stagnancy in issuing the new
certificate of business registration is due to the deadlock in debt settlement
between the firm and three banks relating to the 25 million shares Dieu Hien
had mortgaged to two banks for loans.
The meeting between three
parties, Bianfishco, SHB and Vietnam Development Bank (VDB), early this month
ended without reaching any deals as the 25 million remaining Bianfishco shares
had been mortgaged to a branch of the Bank for Investment and Development of
Vietnam (BIDV) for loans before being brought to the Can Tho branch of VDB as
the mortgage for another loan.
The shares had finally been sold
to Ho May Co.
The Can Tho City branch of Asia
Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) late last week heated up the situation when
it announced that Hien had also mortgaged 8 million shares for a VND80 billion
loans without repayment.
Regarding the new development,
Tri said the firm had already repaid all the debts it owed to ACB, but Hien had
not finalized necessary procedures to reclaim the shares as all were printed in
the old format.
As a result, Hien had only sent
one written document to ACB to ask the bank to get rid of all the invalid
shares (with the old format).
The debt-stricken fishery firm
officially restarted operations at its catfish processing and exporting plant
in Can Tho-based Tra Noc Industrial Park on May 9, 2012.
The company then still owed
VND200 billion to farmers on fish purchase.
The beleaguered seafood company
has managed to reduce its bank debts to VND900 billion from VND1.54 trillion
($73.9 million).
Tuoi Tre
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