Banks seek to liquidate collateral

By Tat Dat February 8, 2022 | 06:38 pm PT

An employee counts Vietnamese banknotes at a bank in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy

Banks are quickly putting up borrowers’ loan collateral like land, factories, machinery, and cars for sale after Tet, the nine-day Lunar New Year festival ending Feb. 6.

Vietcombank auctioned land use rights and other assets of Evergreen Industries (Vietnam) Co., Ltd. with a reserve price of VND1.1 trillion (US$48 million).

Under the hammer is a total of more than 30,000 sq.m of land at the Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Park II (VSIP II) and 40,000 sq.m in VSIP IIA in the southern province of Binh Duong, and factories and machinery.

Agribank Center Saigon has put up six pieces of land measuring 1,900 sq.m and attached assets at a reserve price of nearly VND430 billion. The property at 20 Tran Cao Van in the HCMC’s District 1 was mortgaged by a real estate developer.

Bank branches in other provinces too have listed many properties to recover debts.

The Thua Thien - Hue branch of BIDV announced the sale of 1,100 sq.m of land and attached assets on Hung Vuong street mortgaged by Thanh Trang Co., Ltd. and worth more than VND99 billion.

The Binh Duong Industrial Park branch of Vietinbank announced to auction 7,400 sq.m of land and assets in Binh Tan District, HCMC. The starting price is listed as VND230 billion.

In January, Agribank posted over 20 announcements of collateral sale, while BIDV and Vietcombank listed 16 and eight.

There is a high level of bad debts at banks. According to preliminary statistics from the State Bank of Vietnam, the rate of nonperforming loans (NPL) was 1.9 percent, 0.21 percentage points higher than a year ago.