Is the Merperle Dalat Hotel project of Khai Vy company backed?

Unusual signs in handling the illegal construction of the largest trillion-dollar hotel in Da Lat

The Merperle Dalat Hotel project is currently the largest and tallest 5-star hotel project in Dalat, with an investment of one trillion VND. However, recently, the media and people know this hotel not because of its "magnificence" but because of the constant "scandals" related to the investor and the fact that this project is being constructed illegally.

Accordingly, in recent days, many news channels have simultaneously reported that the People's Committee of Lam Dong province allowed Khai Vy Company to pay money to "legalize" the "huge" violations during the implementation of the Merperle Dalat Hotel Project.

The 5-star Merperle Dalat Hotel of Khai Vy Company is a large-scale project located right in the center of Da Lat City.

This is surprising information for the public, because before that, this enterprise was continuously administratively fined for illegal construction, construction that did not comply with the license content, and was "called" for its recklessness when openly violating the license. With this move of the Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee, public opinion has been constantly gossiping and discussing. Because the violations at the Merperle Dalat Hotel Project show signs of disregard for the law, deliberately ignoring the provisions of the law to commit violations. Especially the lax management of local authorities and functional agencies.

The heat of the information also made many people in Da Lat skeptical about whether the enterprise had "backing" or not, but dared to blatantly violate and challenge public opinion. Because the construction order violations at the Merperle Dalat Hotel Project are extremely large, the violation area is up to thousands of square meters. Moreover, this massive project is located right on the front of Hung Vuong Street, just a few steps away from the headquarters of Ward 10 People's Committee. It is difficult to understand why the local government left it open and did not handle it decisively from the beginning, but let "the elephant go through the eye of the needle" and when it was too late, they allowed the enterprise to "legalize" the violations with money.

Faced with an incident that is strongly affecting public opinion, the Journalist & Public Opinion newspaper has stepped in and found out the truth about the largest "super-giant" hotel project in Da Lat and information about the investor who is illegally constructing the project... openly.

The project was "shelved" for many years, suddenly "revived" after changing investors and... blatantly illegally built

Merperle Datlat Hotel project is located at 10 Hung Vuong, Ward 10, Da Lat City, Lam Dong Province, formerly known as Saigon Moi Hotel. In 2009, the project was granted an investment certificate by Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee to Saigon Investment Construction and Trade Company Limited, the project's goal is to build a hotel that, when completed and put into operation, will meet 5-star international standards.

Merperle Dalat Hotel was fined by the People's Committee of Da Lat City for a series of "huge" violations.

In October 2018, Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee agreed in principle to adjust the investment certificate to approve Khai Vy Group Joint Stock Company to implement the project and change the name to Merperle Dalat Hotel. On September 28, 2022, Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee approved the adjustment of the land user name to Khai Vy Joint Stock Company (Khai Vy Company). Since 2018, this project has been continuously mentioned due to a number of violations in the construction field. Specifically:

In 2019, the People's Committee of Da Lat City issued a decision to impose an administrative fine of VND 40 million on Khai Vy Company (then Khai Vy Group Joint Stock Company) for constructing a project without a construction permit at No. 1 Hung Vuong, Ward 10, Da Lat City.

In May 2020, the People's Committee of Da Lat City continued to issue a decision to enforce and force the implementation of remedial measures against Khai Vy Group Joint Stock Company because, despite not having a construction permit, the investor arbitrarily allowed piling to construct the foundation of the Merperle Dalat Hotel.

The climax was in October 2023, when the People's Committee of Da Lat City issued a decision to administratively fine Khai Vy Company 110 million VND for illegal construction at the Merperle Dalat Hotel project. Previously, the People's Committee of Da Lat City had issued a document requesting Khai Vy Company to stop construction to handle construction violations, specifically, this project was illegally constructed, exceeding the construction permit by nearly 4,500m2.

Da Lat City People's Committee determined that, according to the granted construction permit, basement 2 has a floor area of ​​5,806m2, but in reality, the construction area is 7,092m2, larger than 1,286m2.

At basement 1, the licensed floor area is 5,777m2, but the actual construction is 7,092m2, larger than 1,315m2.

On the first floor, the licensed floor area is 3,612m2 (including the garden), but the actual construction area is up to 4,567m2, larger than 955m2. In addition, at the time of discovery, the project was constructing the roof formwork with an area of ​​900m2, which is not included in the content of the granted construction permit.

With these violations, the People's Committee of Da Lat City has requested Khai Vy Joint Stock Company to stop construction, comply with measures to handle violations and contact the competent authorities to prepare a dossier to adjust the construction permit according to regulations and the content of the design adjustment according to the request of the People's Committee of Lam Dong province. If the competent authority does not grant the adjusted construction permit, it must be responsible for dismantling the inappropriate items.

However, through previous research, on September 22, 2023, Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee issued Document 8303/UBND-QH to agree on the policy of adjusting the design of the Merperle Dalat Hotel project, similar to the area of ​​violations pointed out by Da Lat City People's Committee.

Responding to the press about this incident, Mr. Le Quang Trung, Director of the Department of Construction of Lam Dong province, said that according to regulations, Khai Vy Company must complete the procedures for design adjustment, submit them to the Ministry of Construction for appraisal, and submit them to the Ministry of Public Security for approval regarding fire prevention and fighting. After completing the documents for this adjustment, the Department of Construction will issue an adjustment permit. When there is no adjustment permit, constructing items outside the granted permit is a violation.

Lam Dong allows businesses to "legalize" violations by paying money?

The decision to fine Khai Vy Company was issued a few days ago, but on November 3, 2023, Mr. Vo Ngoc Hiep, Vice Chairman of Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee, signed Document No. 9705/UBND assigning departments and branches to coordinate with Da Lat City People's Committee to determine the financial obligations that Khai Vy Joint Stock Company must pay due to design changes that increase the land use coefficient at the 5-star Merperle Dalat Hotel project. This move seems to be to quickly promote this project to complete the previously adjusted design when it was illegally constructed, exceeding the construction permit by nearly 4,500m2.

It is worth mentioning that at this time, Merperle Dalat Hotel has not yet received the appraisal results from the Ministry of Construction . Because until December 21, 2023, in document 3399/STNMT-VP of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Lam Dong province, it was shown that there was not enough basis to appraise the specific land price according to the increased land use coefficient, because there was no response from the Ministry of Construction.

Public opinion believes that this is unreasonable, showing inconsistency in handling violations because previously, on June 26, 2023, Mr. Vo Ngoc Hiep, Vice Chairman of Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee, also issued Document No. 5493/UBND-XD assigning departments and branches to inspect and supervise compliance with construction laws at the 5-star Merperle Dalat Hotel project. At the same time, Khai Vy Joint Stock Company was required to comply with the granted construction permit and approved construction design documents.

This document also clearly states: "Request Khai Vy Joint Stock Company to continue construction of Merperle Dalat Hotel project according to the extended schedule and Construction Permit No. 24/GPXD issued by the Department of Construction on March 22, 2021 and approved design documents to ensure safety, construction quality and put the project into operation in accordance with regulations". But as mentioned above, only 3 months later, Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee issued a document agreeing on the policy for this project to adjust the design, "increasing" by nearly 4,500m2.

Regarding this issue, many opinions say that, with the level of luxury of Merperle Dalat Hotel, the service price is not cheap, so the profit and revenue from exploiting the area of ​​illegal construction will be very large. If compared with the amount of 110 million VND paid in fines to "legalize" this illegal construction, this number is nothing.

Besides, if we only impose administrative fines and then let the project continue to exist, it is no different from solving the problem from the root, this also creates a bad precedent in society, stimulating more unlicensed and illegal projects to be built.

Loss-making businesses, where to find billions to do the Merperle Dalat Hotel project?

Khai Vy Company was established in 2000 (address: 30 Lot K Hoang Quoc Viet extended, Phu My ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City). The founding shareholders include Mr. Doan Van Trang, Ms. Mai Thi Mai (Mr. Trang's wife), and Mr. Nguyen Quoc Bao.

Some typical projects of Khai Vy Joint Stock Company include: Merperle Hon Tam Resort - 114 hectares; Crystal Palace Wedding and Convention Center; Khai Vy Residential and Commercial Project (District 7, Ho Chi Minh City).

Khai Vy Company has had its debt auctioned off many times by the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development. According to statistics, by November 2021, BIDV had announced the ninth auction of Khai Vy's debt. The total outstanding debt as of June 7, 2021 was VND 1,035 billion, of which the principal outstanding debt was VND 409 billion and the interest outstanding debt was VND 626 billion.

Khai Vy Company used 9 assets to secure the above loan, including many real estates and machinery and equipment of Khai Vy Group, including: land use rights and constructions on land (Crytal Palace building in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City); 367 hectares of planted forest at Dak Ha Forestry Farm, Dak Nong Province; 6 cars of various types; more than 8.7 million shares at Hon Tam Nha Trang Sea Company; Receivables worth 51 billion at Hon Tam Nha Trang Sea Company; Machinery and equipment for wood production of Khai Vy Group....

According to the investigation of the Journalist & Public Opinion newspaper, in recent years, Khai Vy Company has had a series of unsatisfactory business activities. Especially in the past 2 years, Kha Vy Company has had a series of poor business activities with revenue tending to decrease. From more than 750 billion in 2017, Khai Vy's revenue is now only about over a hundred billion.

It is worth mentioning that despite recording huge revenue in 2017, this company recorded a net loss of more than 200 billion. The peak of this loss-making business reached more than 300 billion VND in 2020. By 2021, Khai Vy Company's loss narrowed to 234 billion and returned to profit in 2022 with only 19 billion VND.

As of 2022, Khai Vy Company's accumulated loss has reached more than 773 billion VND while its charter capital is only 176 billion, causing the company to have a negative equity of nearly 600 billion. This negative equity situation started in 2020 after the company reported a record loss.

The data also shows that Khai Vy's business activities in recent years have been mainly financed by debt capital. Total liabilities at the end of 2022 were more than 1,700 billion. This figure has continuously increased in the last 3 years but the increase is not large. Compared to the end of 2017, the company's total liabilities have decreased by 1,000 billion VND.

With negative equity, liabilities also shrank, causing the total assets of Khai Vy Company to continuously shrink to only 1/3 after 5 years, at 1,120 billion VND at the end of 2022. Cash is only more than 8 billion next to 12 billion VND in deposits, but there is a business securities account of more than 55 billion. The company has incurred this item for many years, at times the value of the business securities account reached nearly 130 billion.

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/kinh-doanh-bet-bat-va-ngang-nhien-sai-pham-ai-hau-thuan-cho-ong-chu-du-an-nghin-ty-merperle-dalat-hotel-post282315.html