VietNamNet Bridge – To move ahead with its restructuring process, SBIC (the Shipbuilding Industry Corporation) still needs to find solutions for 73 subsidiaries, but no one has made an offer to take them over.

SBIC is still bogged down in difficulties that it has experienced over the last six years, since the day Vinashin (the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group), the forerunner of SBIC, collapsed.

It is still unclear about the fate of its 73 subsidiaries. SBIC has requested the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) to take over the companies, so as to help SBIC ease the burden on its shoulders.

SCIC is known as a state-owned “super corporation” which specializes in making investments in enterprises with the state’s capital. It can also be used by the state in important deals the state needs to intervene.

Therefore, analysts also think SCIC is the most suitable body which can take charge of the 73 businesses..

However, none of the 73 businesses has been welcomed by SCIC.

The only one of the 73 businesses SCIC once eyed was a single-member investment & export company limited.

 However, the company’s documents about land, investment projects and accounts payable submitted to SCIC did not satisfy SCIC.

Analysts have said that the fate of the businesses are “hanging by a thread”.

And they have reasons to say so, as SBIC is considering dissolving 50 member units, including subsidiaries, vocational schools and dependent units.

The decision was made after SBIC dissolved 12 units.

SBIC is following necessary procedures to declare bankruptcy for 21 enterprises. The plan on equitizing the holding company has been immovable.

Setting up a steering committee in charge of monitoring the equitization process proves to be the only thing SBIC has done so far to implement the plan.

Sources said that the State Bank of Vietnam still has to check the debt restructuring plan drawn up by SBIC.

Meanwhile, the General Department of Taxation has been told to check the debt situation of SBIC’s subsidiaries.

All the factors show that the path SBIC has to go to restructure is still long and thorny.

In the golden age, Vinashin, as commented by experts, “brought one company a day to the market”. However, the businesses “born” on auspicious days seem to be unlucky.

When initiating the Vinashin restructuring process, some officials promised before the National Assembly that Vinashin would begin making profits again in 2013 or 2014. However, this has not happened.

Under a government’s decision released one year ago, SBIC will retain only eight subsidiaries out of the 236 businesses of different kinds, including the ones where Vinashin contributed capital with its brand.

In fact, SBIC’s financial situation has improved thanks to the new agreements between SBIC and creditors on debt relief and rollover, which has given it 10-12 years more to make money to pay its debts.

TBKTSG