VietNamNet Bridge - Investors believe that Vinamilk under its new chair Le Thi Bang Tam will be different from the company under the former chair Mai Kieu Lien.



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Mai Kieu Lien (left) and Le Thi Bang Tam (right)

Le Thi Bang Tam, an independent member of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk), President of HDBank, assumed the position on July 25.

The structure of the board of directors at Vinamilk will have certain effects on the power of Vinamilk chair.

Vinamilk board of directors now has six members after the status of the independent member enjoyed by Ha Van Tham was removed. Tham has been arrested for business wrongdoings.

Of the current six members of the board of directors, Tam is an independent member. The other two, Le Minh Anh and Ng Jui Sia, represent foreign shareholders, while the remaining three are all from the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), the biggest shareholder in Vinamilk which now holds an 11 percent stake.

In case the members of the board of directors vote 3:3, it will be the chair of the board who has the right to make a final decision. 

Will there be big changes in Vinamilk?

HVS Vietnam Securities Company’s CEO Vicente Nguyen believes that the resignation of Mai Kieu Lien from the post of the chair of the directors’ board will affect investors’ feelings.

A company with good governance like Vinamilk will still operate well. However, what worries investors is that Lien might be unable to hold the post of CEO from 2016 or even earlier.

“If this happens,” Nguyen said, “Vinamilk’s business performance will certainly be affected in short term. However, in the long term, Vinamilk will still operate well.”

An analyst said that Le Thi Bang Tam, the new chair, has experience in finance and corporate governance. 

Tam, who was Deputy Minister of Finance, and now acts as the advisor to many large economic groups, has good relations with business and government circles. She is expected to bring good things to Vinamilk.

He also thinks that Tam will not meet difficulties when managing Vinamilk.

Nguyen believes that Tam will be a good chair as she is not the capital representative of any large shareholders. Meanwhile, in Vinamilk, SCIC has three representatives and foreign investors have two.

However, he noted that Tam was once chair of SCIC’s board of directors and Deputy Minister of Finance. She has close relations with both SCIC and the State.

“We think it is highly possible that Tam would have the same opinions and decisions as the SCIC representatives,” he said.

Kim Chi