The High Court has sanctioned a scheme of arrangement between a Vietnamese company and certain of its creditors; the first time a Vietnamese company has taken advantage of this restructuring process in England.
Background
The Law on Enterprise and Law on Investment that took effect in 2015 introduced refreshing changes to Vietnam’s investment and business landscape. Designed to stimulate and better facilitate foreign investments in the country, the two new laws have since given rise to several implementing regulations that expound on important subjects such as foreign ownership up to 100% in listed companies, private public partnerships, trade, and representative offices.
On 26 June 2015, Vietnam loosened foreign ownership limits (FOL) in public companies by the adoption of Decree 60/2015 (Decree 60).
On 18 March 2014, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued Circular No. 09/2014/TT-NHNN (Circular 09) to amend and supplement a number of articles in Circular No. 02/2013/TT-NHNN regulating the classification of debt, the establishment and levels of risk reserves, and the use of reserves for dealing with risks during the operation of credit institutions and foreign bank branches.
Welcome to the fifth edition of Baker & McKenzie's quarterly Asia Pacific Financial Services & Regulatory Newsletter.
The Prime Minister of Vietnam recently issued Decision No. 242, approving Vietnam's Restructuring Plan of the insurance business market until 2020, oriented towards 2025 (Plan) following the final proposal of the Ministry of Finance (MOF)'s Insurance Supervisory Authority of Vietnam.1
Law No. 47/2010/QH12 on credit institutions has been amended pursuant to Law No. 17/2017/QH14 (“Amended Law”) passed by the National Assembly. The Amended Law came into effect on 15 January 2018.
The Amended Law provides grounds for special control by the State Bank of Vietnam (“SBV”) against underperforming credit institutions which:
have failed to maintain liquidity requirements;
have accumulated losses exceeding 50% of the charter capital and reserve funds as recorded in the latest audited financial statements;