Revealing the people of Thaigroup, LPBank Securities
Hoang Anh Gia Lai Joint Stock Company (stock code: HAG), chaired by Mr. Doan Nguyen Duc (Bau Duc), is preparing to hold its annual meeting with shareholders. One of the notable points of this meeting is that the company will complete its senior leadership team for the 5-year term (2025-2030).
Mr. Duc, with a personal ownership ratio of 30.26% of capital, nominated himself to the company's board of directors for the new term. Along with his role as a major shareholder holding over 10% of capital, Mr. Duc also nominated 4 other members to the Board of Directors.
The three nominees are those who have been with Mr. Duc for many years and are holding positions at Hoang Anh Gia Lai. They are Mr. Vo Truong Son - Member of the Board of Directors, Ms. Ho Thi Kim Chi - Deputy General Director, Ms. Vo Thi My Hanh - Member of the Board of Directors and Deputy General Director.
The remaining nominee is Ms. Ha Khiet Tran, a new candidate for the position of Independent Member of the Board of Directors, currently the Capital Investment Director of Huong Viet Investment Consulting Joint Stock Company and a member of the Board of Supervisors of The Century Fiber Joint Stock Company.
In addition to Mr. Duc, the group of shareholders including Thaigroup Corporation, LPBank Securities Company (LPBS) and Mr. Nguyen Phan Anh (owning a total of 11.47% of capital) nominated Ms. Vu Thanh Hue to the position of member of the Board of Directors for the new term.
According to the introduction, Ms. Hue currently holds many important positions at other enterprises such as Member of the Board of Directors and Deputy General Director of Thaiholdings, Chairman of Thaihomes Real Estate Development Joint Stock Company, Vice Chairman of LPBank Securities, Member of the Board of Directors of Kim Lien Tourism Joint Stock Company.
The shareholder groups Thaigroup and LPBS have appeared at Hoang Anh Gia Lai since the beginning of 2024, when this enterprise issued shares to collect 1,300 billion VND to restructure debt. Both Thaigroup and LPBS are related to LPBank and Mr. Nguyen Duc Thuy - Chairman of this bank.
LPBank and Hoang Anh Gia Lai have worked together to build the football team that Mr. Duc has devoted his heart to for many years. In 2023, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Academy and Club announced a name change to LPBank - Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Academy and LPBank - Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club.
LPBank also signed a contract to finance 5,000 billion VND for Hoang Anh Gia Lai in 2024, prioritizing investment in green agriculture according to the banking development orientation associated with the task of developing green credit - green banking.
Bananas are one of the main products of Hoang Anh Gia Lai (Photo: HAG).
The emergence of OCB
According to the report, Hoang Anh Gia Lai incurred a loan of VND750 billion with LPBank from the end of 2023. By the beginning of 2024, this loan increased to nearly VND1,530 billion and by September this year it was VND1,540 billion.
However, by the end of 2024, the debt with LPBank will no longer exist. Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) - Dak Lak Branch is the new creditor of Hoang Anh Gia Lai, with an amount of nearly 2,000 billion VND that was not available at the beginning of the year.
As of March 31, the report showed that Hoang Anh Gia Lai increased its debt at OCB to VND2,213 billion. Thus, OCB has replaced LPBank to become the largest creditor at Mr. Duc's enterprise.
Regarding OCB, at the recent general meeting, shareholders raised the question of whether this bank would move towards buying OCB Securities (OCBS)? Mr. Trinh Van Tuan - Chairman of OCB - said that the board of directors has the orientation of owning a securities company.
However, due to unfavorable market conditions, at this stage, OCB has implemented a comprehensive strategic cooperation with OCBS Securities Company. In the long term, OCB can move towards owning a securities company when conditions are favorable.
Among the list of candidates nominated by Duc to the Board of Directors, a notable candidate is Ms. Ha Khiet Tran. Ms. Tran is currently the Capital Investment Director of Huong Viet Investment Consulting Joint Stock Company and a member of the Board of Supervisors of The Century Fiber Joint Stock Company. In which, Huong Viet is the largest shareholder of OCBS, with an ownership ratio of 85.39%, according to the 2024 management report.
The Chairman of Huong Viet is Mr. Vo Quang Long, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of OCBS. The General Director of OCBS is Mr. Nguyen Duc Quan Tung, who registered to spend 200 billion VND to buy HAG shares in the company's share issuance worth 1,300 billion VND.
Prospects for eliminating accumulated losses and outstanding debt with BIDV
After a period of illiquidity, Hoang Anh Gia Lai has looked for "what animals to raise, what plants to grow", aiming at agricultural products that provide fast, stable income and are gradually showing results.
In 2024, fruit sales will be the main contributor to Hoang Anh Gia Lai's business picture. The group's banana growing area will reach 7,000 hectares, durian will reach 2,000 hectares, and it will not build new pig farms to feed bananas but will focus on herd restoration.
Business results have changed, operations are profitable, but Mr. Duc's company has not yet filled the gap of accumulated losses. In the audited consolidated financial statements for 2024, the auditor emphasized the accumulated loss of more than VND 422 billion and short-term debt exceeding short-term assets. These conditions indicate the existence of a material uncertainty that may lead to significant doubt about the group's ability to continue as a going concern.
To explain this opinion, the group has prepared a business plan for the next 12 months including expected cash flow from liquidating part of financial investments, liquidating assets, recovering loans from partners, money borrowed from commercial banks and operating cash flow from ongoing projects.
At the same time, the group said it is still in the process of working with lenders to adjust the terms of the loan and bond contracts that have been violated; negotiating the restructuring of some overdue debts. The pig and banana businesses continue to generate large amounts of cash this year.
In the first quarter of the year, fruits brought in a large amount of revenue, accounting for 72% of Hoang Anh Gia Lai's revenue structure. The group earned a profit of more than 360 billion VND, an increase of 59% over the same period last year.
Making a profit this quarter helped Hoang Anh Gia Lai reduce its accumulated losses, from nearly VND423 billion to nearly VND83 billion as of March 31. Mr. Duc once called accumulated losses the biggest “obsession”, and now they are only nearly VND83 billion. It seems that the dream of erasing accumulated losses is about to come true.
However, the target of paying off all debts in 2025-2026 is still pending. As of March 31, Hoang Anh Gia Lai had financial debt of more than VND 7,504 billion, of which short-term debt still accounted for a large proportion. In the first month of the year, the company increased its financial debt by VND 540 billion. The debt/equity ratio is 0.77 times.
Hoang Anh Gia Lai still has a bond debt of VND3,102 billion, due on December 30, 2026 at BIDV. Specifically, more than VND1,916 billion is due within one year and nearly VND1,172 billion is long-term bond.
In 2024, the group arranged to pay this debt to BIDV many times. Most recently, at the end of the year, Hoang Anh Gia Lai paid VND 1,030 billion in bond principal. This source of money was likely arranged from Hoang Anh Gia Lai Agricultural Company.
It is hard to deny the efforts of Mr. Duc's business in handling huge debts, rising out of losses, erasing accumulated losses and restructuring debts day by day. In the future, focusing on business strategy is also a way for this group to change the situation. In the 2024-2030 strategy, Hoang Anh Gia Lai said it will choose the fruit tree and pig farming industries as the main focus.
The target by 2030 is to have 30,000 hectares of banana, durian and other valuable trees. Hoang Anh Gia Lai also wants to become the leading group in Vietnam in the agricultural sector.
On that journey, Mr. Duc's business may need the cooperation and support of many "big guys" in the financial industry, to create a healthy body strong enough to reach out to the ocean.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/bau-duc-co-them-cac-dai-gia-dong-hanh-sap-het-am-anh-no-20250530074145411.htm
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