On the morning of July 30, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Cuong (Cuong Do La) chaired the second annual general meeting of shareholders in 2024 after taking the hot seat of General Director of Quoc Cuong Gia Lai Joint Stock Company (QCG) to replace his mother, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhu Loan. Ms. Loan was arrested and prosecuted on July 19 in connection with the transfer of the project 39-39B Ben Van Don, Ward 12, District 4, Ho Chi Minh City.

Returning to the board of directors after 6 years of withdrawal from Quoc Cuong Gia Lai (QCGL), Mr. Nguyen Quoc Cuong is expected to handle the Phuoc Kien project with Van Thinh Phat as well as resolve problems in other real estate projects.

According to the court's ruling, QCGL will pay Van Thinh Phat the VND 2,880 billion that Sunny Land (a company belonging to the Van Thinh Phat ecosystem) paid in advance for the sale of the Phuoc Kien project. Only then will QCGL be able to take back the project that is being seized.

However, 2,880 billion VND is a large amount and it will take time to collect enough. The difficulty is that the project's legal documents are currently frozen and cannot be used as collateral for any loan.

By the end of the first quarter of 2024, QCG had cash and cash equivalents of less than VND30 billion. Large inventories, more than VND7,000 billion, but most of them were in stuck projects. Total debt was more than VND5,000 billion, of which loans and financial leasing debt was about VND570 billion.

It is not known what will happen to Phuoc Kien and many other QCG projects after Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhu Loan was arrested and Mr. Nguyen Quoc Cuong took over, but QCG shares have increased to the ceiling again in two sessions after falling nearly 30% previously.

Investors are expecting the roadmap to sell 3 hydropower plants, accelerate inventory handling with completed projects, and sell the Marina Da Nang project so that QCG can collect enough money to pay Van Thinh Phat and take back the Phuoc Kien project.

However, on the other hand, some investors are concerned that the investigation into Ms. Loan is ongoing, so more time is needed to assess the company’s prospects. In addition, the real estate sector in general still has many difficulties and problems that need to be resolved.

Over the past decade, QCG has also had many scandals, not only related to the projects it has implemented but also many violations related to information disclosure. Business results have also been weak.

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Mr. Doan Nguyen Duc - Chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai. Photo: KTĐT

With Hoang Anh Gia Lai Joint Stock Company - HAGL Group (HAG) chaired by Mr. Doan Nguyen Duc (Bau Duc), this enterprise has recently had less difficulty when selling its agricultural sector (HAGL Agrico - HNG) to Thaco of billionaire Tran Ba ​​Duong, earning a large amount of money to pay off debt; at the same time, receiving capital from LPBank and Thaiholdings groups of Mr. Nguyen Duc Thuy.

HAG has actively cleared debt and benefited from the expanded durian garden, with high durian prices.

However, HAGL's total debt is still quite large. On June 30, HAG was late in paying more than VND4,364 billion in principal and interest on bonds because it could not receive full payment from Thaco in the sale of HAGL Agrico.

HNG has just been forced to delist due to 3 consecutive years of losses.

Investors expect that with the appearance of a new group of shareholders, HAGL will break out again. HAG shares have doubled to 15,000 VND/share. But recently HAG has been under selling pressure and has fallen to 12,300 VND/share.

Duc Long Gia Lai Group Joint Stock Company (DLG) is also a large and famous enterprise in Gia Lai, starting from the wood processing industry for domestic consumption and export (quite similar to HAGL). Chairman Bui Phap's enterprise expanded its operations to many industries and once caused a stir in the stock market with the acquisition of the American component company Mass Noble in 2015. This company has a factory in China.

Now, Duc Long Gia Lai has passed its prime, is suffering from accumulated losses of several trillion, its stock price is half the price of a cup of iced tea, and is considering selling its factory in China.

In the two sessions of July 29-30, DLG shares recorded one floor price session and one session down more than 4.1%, down to VND1,620/share.

Duc Long Gia Lai has been in decline and has been making losses for the past two consecutive years. As of the end of the first quarter of 2024, DLG had an accumulated loss of VND 2,637 billion compared to a charter capital of VND 2,993 billion. Current capitalization is over VND 595 billion. DLG has a huge debt, up to the end of March of over VND 2,722 billion, of which nearly VND 1,073 billion is short-term loans and financial leasing debt.

Duc Long Gia Lai also borrowed several thousand billion VND from many banks such as BIDV, VietinBank, Sacombank. As of the end of March 2024, DLG still had an outstanding debt of about 1,700 billion VND from BIDV Bank, including nearly 1,329 billion VND in long-term loans.

The problem of Duc Long Gia Lai is that it has a lot of debt, poor cash flow and is being repeatedly asked by the creditor Lilama 45.3 to open bankruptcy proceedings just because of a debt of more than ten million VND.

In fact, the amount that DLG owes Lilama 45.3 is not much, the total principal and interest is 17 billion VND. And according to DLG, in the first and second quarters of 2024, this company paid 1 billion VND/quarter. The total amount that DLG paid to Lilama 45.3 is 6 billion VND.

Recently, the Board of Directors of Duc Long Gia Lai has passed a resolution to sell all 97.73% of its capital (equivalent to an investment of VND 249 billion) it owns at Mass Noble Investments Limited Company - a unit operating in the field of electronic components. This is the company that has contributed the most to Duc Long Gia Lai's revenue since 2016.

After a period of billion-dollar debt, Mr. Duc's business reported the highest profit in the decade . Mr. Doan Nguyen Duc's (Mr. Duc) business recorded the highest profit in the past 12 years thanks to interest exemptions, asset sales, and skyrocketing income from the fruit tree sector - a field that the HAGL boss is betting on in the coming period.