FLC seeks to buy back headquarter building from creditor bank

The price would be determined by an independent valuation company, the company said.

FLC built the 38-floor building in 2019 at a cost of VND5.2 trillion.

The bank took over the building at the end of 2020 and let FLC rent a part of it.

But with the company facing leadership and financial troubles this year, OCB removed its logo from the building.

As of the end of the first quarter this year FLC owed the lender VND1.53 trillion. Bamboo Airways and other subsidiaries owe it another VND1.3 trillion.

OCB is the company’s third biggest lender after Sacombank and BIDV.

The troubles began for FLC this year after its former chairman Trinh Van Quyet and former deputy chairwoman Huong Tran Kieu Dung were arrested in March and April amid an investigation into possible stock market fraud that caused “serious damage to investors and affected the operations of Vietnam’s stock exchange,” according to the Ministry of Public Security.

La Quy Hien, deputy CEO, recently sought to resign from the board, leaving chairman Dang Tat Thang and CEO Bui Hai Huyen as the only two remaining board members.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange last month restricted trading in FLC and two related companies’ stocks to afternoons for delayed submission of last year’s financial reports.

The company suffered a loss of VND465 billion ($19.85 million) in the first quarter, its biggest in the last two years.