Something fishy with Bianfishco’s big debts

Bianfishco acting general director Tran Van Tri said the once-headlined firm was to sign contracts with a foreign partner who would buy 80 per cent of the former’s stock, for around $80 million.

Tri said initial figures showed Bianfishco had debts in the order of VND262 billion ($12 million) relating to tra fish it had bought and around VND62 billion ($2.9 million) in loans from Asia Commercial Bank.

Local newspapers reported that the debt could be as high as VND1.5 trillion ($71.8 million) because several other debts had not been released. Tri, however, refused to confirm this figure, claiming he had just taken over the company from his wife and was not yet across all the details. Bianfishco had signed two other export contracts with American and Japanese partners, totaling $42 million.

“I confirm that Bianfishco will not welsh on its debts, but we will consider paying all farmers and bankers,” Tri said. He added the company would also consider selling two properties on Nguyen Van Troi and Cao Thang streets in Ho Chi Minh City, and even its Rolls-Royce Phantom car, for debt repayment.

Tri has just been appointed as the acting general director to replace his wife, Pham Thi Dieu Hien, who is in Singapore for cancer treatment. He also denied news that the couple were trying to dodge the debts. “She flew to Singapore for cancer treatment and these rumours are damaging the prestige of my family and Bianfishco,” he said.

In late February, two farmers, Nguyen Van Lien and Pham Thi Mai, decided to sue Hien for not having paid for the fish the company had bought from them. News of the lawsuit followed Hien spending a huge sum on a luxury wedding for her son in Can Tho City, with a range of luxury cars present at the celebration.

Agribank Can Tho then refused to lend VND300 billion ($14.2 million) to Bianfishco, because the company did not have mortgaged assets for the loans. Bianfishco has a tra fish processing factory, a fishery research institute, a collagen factory and around 100 hectares given over to raising tra fish.

It has total investment capital of VND2,000 billion ($95.8 million) and its export turnover in the first 10 months of 2011 was VND1,400 billion ($67 million). The financial difficulties only arose in last quarter when many banks withdrew their lending at the same time.

Tri said that the factory was still in operation although a quarter of the firm’s 4,000 workers were required to stop working from March 5 to 12 after their January wages were paid.