Arbitration Center rules Le Viet Hai still chairman of Hoa Binh Construction

The company has notified the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange about the verdict. The center has instructed the company to postpone all decisions made by its board of directors in December 2022.

On December 14, the board had accepted Hai’s resignation, effective January 1, and the appointment of outside director Nguyen Cong Phu as his replacement.

His son Le Viet Hieu was named CEO. Hai has a 17.14% stake in the company. Phu told the media that Hai had to resign because some board members had discovered “financial wrongdoing” by him.

But Hai then tried to convene an extraordinary board meeting on December 29 to discuss postponement of the decisions approving his resignation, making Phu the new chairman and his son the CEO. He failed to get a quorum.

He told the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange that the decisions had to be postponed because there were issues with the operation of a so-called Founders Committee.

Since January 1 both Hai and Phu claimed to be the legal chairman of Hoa Binh.

On January 3 a shareholder of the company approached the Vietnam International Arbitration Center, asking it to postpone the decisions made by the board in December.

Hai, 64, graduated from the University of Architecture Ho Chi Minh City and founded the Hoa Binh Construction Office in 1987, of which he was the CEO.

He has been the chairman of the company since it became a joint stock firm in 2000.

Hoa Binh Construction is listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange and has a charter capital of VND2.74 trillion.

It plans to expand internationally within the next decade, and achieve $20 billion in revenues and nearly $1 billion in profits by 2032.