Giving money to shareholders to attend the meeting, the extraordinary congress of CII still failed

On the morning of September 19, Ho Chi Minh City Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Company (Code: CII) held an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in 2023. However, like many other times, this meeting could not be held due to the lack of required quorum.

At around 9:00 a.m., Head of the Supervisory Board Doan Minh Thu announced that the number of attendees was quite large, with 218 people, however, these shareholders only held about 31% of the total number of shares with voting rights (lower than the required level of over 50%).

According to CII leaders, the number of attendees this time is higher than previous times (only about 170 shareholders). This result is thanks to the company announcing that it will give money to shareholders who attend in person or by proxy, in order to increase the possibility of a successful meeting.

Although it was not possible to hold meetings as usual, the board of directors of this transport infrastructure company still spent a lot of time informing about its operations and answering questions from shareholders.

General Director Le Quoc Binh said that in the 2024-2030 period, the company has a strategy to promote research on BOT projects and other transport infrastructure projects; in addition, it also allocates a budget to research investments in healthcare infrastructure and retirement real estate.

Project name	Total investment (billion VND)	Location
Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong-My Thuan Expressway Phase 2	22,000	Ho Chi Minh City, Long An, Tien Giang
Improving traffic capacity in the northwest of Ho Chi Minh City	19,059	District 12, Tan Binh, Hoc Mon
Upgrading National Highway 1A, from Tan Kien junction to Long An	11,982	Binh Chanh
Pham Van Dong-Ung Van Khiem-Nguyen Huu Canh route	10,108	Binh Thanh
Upgrading the section from Nguyen Van Linh to Ben Luc expressway	6,625	Binh Chanh
Upgrading the Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong expressway connection route	5,048	Binh Chanh

According to the document, CII plans to carry out research on 6 BOT projects with a total scale of nearly 75,000 billion VND. The projects CII is researching are concentrated in the northern and southwestern gateway areas of Ho Chi Minh City. The largest project is the implementation of the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Phase 2 with a total investment of 22,000 billion VND.

Regarding the expansion of investment into new fields, CII plans to expand into the field of medical infrastructure. The company said it is studying cooperation with famous hospitals to invest in service infrastructure in the field of medical examination and treatment such as cooperation in building clinics and medical accommodation facilities.

"If approved by this General Meeting of Shareholders, the Board of Directors and Executive Board will study further, but unfortunately the meeting was unsuccessful," said Mr. Binh.

CEO Le Quoc Binh assessed that CII is the company with the best capital recovery ability in the market in the field of investing in projects in the form of BOT (private companies invest in building infrastructure, then exploit and operate and finally transfer it back to the state).

CEO Le Quoc Binh said he is researching many new projects with a total investment capital of up to 75,000 billion VND. (Photo: Huy Le).

He said that there are many investors in the market who do not have enough financial capacity but still participate in BOT bidding and then leave it because they do not have capital to implement it. Currently, most investors who want to borrow capital to do BOT projects are rejected by most banks, but CII is still accepted.

For example, when participating in a 19,000 billion VND BOT project, the state budget invests about 9,000 billion and the investor puts in 10,000 billion (can borrow up to 50%). Therefore, the current investment regulations are tightened, requiring a letter of guarantee from the bank to avoid the case of winning the bid but not having money to do it.

In addition, other investors are mainly contractors who are only interested in construction volume rather than capital recovery like CII. The company also prioritizes infrastructure projects in the West rather than the East to increase the ability to recover capital.

"If the city organizes bidding with stricter criteria, CII will have an easier time winning the bid," Mr. Binh hopes that the stricter the conditions, the more it will limit the situation where other units bid and then leave it there.

Ready to sell stocks when the price is right

Regarding the investment in Tasco Company (Code: HUT), CII leaders said they are cooperating with this unit because Tasco has a subsidiary VETC, which is the leader in the field of non-stop automatic toll collection. CII even wants to establish a joint venture with this group (including Thang Long Corporation and VETC) to participate in upcoming projects.

However, CEO Le Quoc Binh said that if HUT's stock price increases beyond expectations, the board of directors is still ready to sell to take profit.

Even with the investment in Nam Bay Bay (Code: NBB), Mr. Binh said he once sold a large quantity at a high price and now the market price has decreased, so the company is still willing to buy it back to make a profit on the price difference.

Voters proposed to relocate the BOT toll station in Quang Tri, but the Ministry of Transport responded that the toll would only be reduced . Voters proposed to relocate or for the State to buy back the BOT toll station located in the middle of the only North-South route through Quang Tri province. However, the Ministry of Transport responded that relocation was not feasible, and only reduced fares would be implemented.

Source