On December 16, 2019, Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) and other syndicated banks officially signed credit contracts and related documents for Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Project in the form of BOT contract with Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company.
The syndicated financing of banks aims to realize the credit capital source in the capital structure of the approved total investment.
Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway project has undergone major changes including the transfer of competent State agency from Ministry of Transport to the People's Committee of Tien Giang province, eliminating weak shareholders, the total invested capital increased to VND 12,668 billion. In which, the direct State support budget of VND 2,186 billion, equity and other mobilized capital committed to reach a minimum of VND 3,400 billion, Deo Ca Group Joint Stock Company participated in the management.
After the new financial plan was issued under Decision No. 2463 / QD-UBND dated August 2, 2019, VietinBank continues to act as the focal point, together with BIDV, Agribank and VPBank to re-evaluate and complete the appraisal report from November 18, 2019 and has completed the remaining stages in December 2019 under the credit granting process, in accordance with the capacity and conditions of each bank. The total committed loan capital of banks for Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway project is VND 6,686 billion, of which: VietinBank is VND 3,300 billion, BIDV is VND 1,500 billion, AgriBank is VND 1,000 billion and VPBank is 886 billion dong.
At the signing ceremony, Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat on behalf of the Ministry highly appreciated the efforts of investors and project enterprises to obtain this credit contract. Deputy Minister Nguyen Nhat also highly appreciated the capacity of Deo Ca Group Joint Stock Company through many previous projects; acknowledging the drastic direction of Tien Giang province, especially the Project management unit of the province has worked with investors and project enterprises to implement difficult procedures in the past time.
The Deputy Minister noted that after signing the credit capital, investors, project enterprises need to review and increase the constructing time to ensure the project quality and schedule.
The signing ceremony of credit contracts and documents for Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Investment Project
Previously, from March 2019 right after the restart of the project, Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company with the participation of executives from Deo Ca Group Joint Stock Company was resolved a series of legal procedures for the goal of connecting the route in 2020 and totally complete the project in 2021.
The completed project adjustment dossier has been appraised and approved by the Ministry of Transport and Tien Giang province. The project was also checked and reviewed the 2nd time by the State Audit Office, which is the basis for eliminating “0 dong investors” such as Yen Khanh Company, and successfully organizing the General Meeting of Shareholders to restructure the project executive board.
Most recently, on December 3, 2019, the project received VND 1,390 billion out of a total VND 2,186 billion of state capital. For the rest, it is known that investors are continuing to propose Tien Giang province to soon make disbursement plans for the project to speed up the progress.
Project enterprise leader have been in parallel directed relevant departments to follow up, provide information and work with syndicated loan banks. In addition, the fierce involvement of Tien Giang PPC in site clearance, adherence to the project implementation schedule, simultaneously made strong commitments, eliminating concerns about risks and potential problems.
Constructing Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway.
Mr. Tran Minh Binh - Member of the Board of Management, General Director of VietinBank said: “Investment in the development of infrastructure systems, including important transport projects such as Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Project is a proper policy of the Government. Understanding the importance of this arterial route to the development of the country, VietinBank soon approached and evaluated the project and actively acted as the focal bank to invite BIDV, Agribank and VPBank to participate in the appraisal and provision of credit capital on the basis of current regulations, to sign a credit syndication loan agreement for the project from 2018. With the fundamental changes of the project in 2019, the State Bank of Vietnam has timely guided 4 banks to closely follow the project to contribute ideas and accompany with the project enterprises and Tien Giang PPC in rebuilding the financial plan as well as working and discussing with the project enterprise and stakeholders to complete the joint appraisal report both appropriate with the re-approved project, ensuring the capital supply to keep up with the urgent construction progress, as well as in accordance with the regulations and processes of the State Bank and relevant laws”.
The implementation of this key expressway project has received many attention and guidance and active support from the Party, National Assembly, Government, Central ministries, departments and Tien Giang PPC. “We hope that the project will continue to receive the attention and direction of the State leaders, and at the same time propose the Project enterprise to organize constructing and direct the contractors to construct according to the approved plan; closely coordinate with 4 syndicated loan banks in the disbursement process on the construction items according to the regulations, ensuring the connecting targets in 2020 in accordance with the direction of the Prime Minister”- Mr. Tran Minh Binh said.
The Project investors are aware of many difficulties ahead, but they are confident in their ability to control and comply with commitments with the bank and ready to implement solutions to handle risks during project implementation.
With this credit contract and credit documents, the investor also strictly and seriously controls the necessary legal procedures for the competent State agency - Tien Giang PPC and the parties to implement, avoid signing but not disburse capital, badly affect the project.
Mr. Nguyen Tan Dong, General Director of Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Joint Stock Company said: “The signing ceremony of the Credit Contract and the credit documents for the project is an important milestone in order to realize the credit capital in the total investment, contributing to speeding up the completion of 51km of Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway. This is testament to the smooth cohesion and coordination between the parties, the best effort towards the success of the project, the determination to follow the directions of the Party, National Assembly, Government and meet the expectation of 20 million people in the Mekong Delta”.
Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Project was ordered by the Prime Minister to start construction on November 29, 2009. This is a part of Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho expressway project (including three sections: Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong, Trung Luong - My Thuan and My Thuan - Can Tho) with the goal of shortening the distance and travel time between the economic center of Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, belonging to the North-South expressway system. The project is on the list of national key projects. However, after many problems related to lack of capital, the project was delayed for a long time. After more than 5 years standstill, in February 2015, the project was restarted and continued to stagnate by many other obstacles. In early 2019, one of the investor partnerships involved in criminal cases that pushed the project to a real deadlock. To remove obstacles, the Government Standing Committee has approved to transfer the competent State agency from Ministry of Transport to the People's Committee of Tien Giang province so that the locality will be more proactive in coordinating with investors to settle the legal issues of the project. Then, in March 2019, after receiving the invitation of Trung Luong - My Thuan BOT Company to participate in improving the management capacity of this expressway project, Deo Ca Group officially participated in operating and restarted the project. Up to now, with many close instructions of the Government, the Prime Minister, the involvement of the State Bank, Central ministries, departments and Trung Luong - My Thuan Expressway Project, there have been radical changes, the connecting targets in 2020, completing the project in 2021 have more hopes for a timely finish. |
By Tien Vinh
