Chairman says he will clear debt of Dai Tan ethanol plant

In late 2012, residents from Quang Nam and Kon Tum Provinces have used trucks to block the entrance gate of Vietnam’s largest ethanol plant to date, the Dai Tan Ethanol Plant, a unit of Dong Xanh Company, to demand payment of VND21 billion (US$1 million) owed to them.
According to local residents, the company has not paid them for materials, food and loading and unloading costs.
Thus, when the villagers heard that Techcombank was about to take away ethanol products out of the plant premises to recover debts owed by the company, they blocked the plant’s entry and exit gates with seven trucks, to prevent anyone from removing movable assets from the plant.
Resident Pham Thi Ngoc Thanh said that liquidation of the plant’s assets must be mutually agreed upon by creditors and concerned authorities of Quang Nam Province.
Dang Hung Tran, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee of Dai Loc District, said they have met with Luu Quang Thai, chairman of Dong Xanh Company, who confirmed that the company had indeed become totally bankrupt. Dong Xanh is headquartered in Da Nang City. The ethanol plant is located in Quang Nam.
Thai was reported to have said that the liabilities of its Dai Tan ethanol plant would be cleared when 21 creditors decide on how their liabilities would be paid. Notwithstanding that Dai Tan’s ethanol stock has been mortgaged to Techcombank, the chairman said that the company will try to sell half of its shares to raise VND 10 billion (US$480,000), VND 3 billion (US$144,000) of which will go for employees remuneration and the remaining VND 7 billion (US$336,000) will be used to pay some of the plant’s debt.
 
In addition, Dong Xanh will also seek financial support from the People’s Committee in Vietnam’s Quang Nam Province to clear the debt of the Dai Tan plant. The facility has an annual capacity of 125 million liters (33 million gallons), produced from 300,000 tons of cassava. (January 4, 2013)