If a director of a joint stock company (the Company) breaches his/her fiduciary duties and causes damage to the Company, under Article 161.1 of the Enterprises Law 2014, a shareholder or group of shareholders holding 1% or more ordinary shares for six consecutive months (1% Shareholder) can on its own behalf or on behalf of the Company to make a civil claim against the director. However, it is unclear whether (1) the 1% Shareholder can request the director to pay compensation directly to the 1% Shareholder or (2) the 1% Shareholder can only request the director to pay compensation to the Company. In other words, it is not clear if the 1% Shareholder can claim the director for reflective loss (e.g., the diminution of the value of such Shareholder’s shareholding in the Company).

The following arguments support the view that the 1% Shareholder cannot claim for reflective loss:

·          Under the Enterprises Law 2014, a shareholder is not allowed to withdraw capital from the Company in any form. If a claim for reflective loss is permitted then the 1% Shareholder is indirectly allowed to withdraw capital from the Company which is contrary to the principle provided by the Enterprises Law 2014;

Various provisions of the Enterprise Law 2014 can now allow parties to an M&A deal in Vietnam to have more flexibility in designing a closing mechanics. In particular,

·        Multiple legal representatives – In a M&A deal involving a change of control, the buyer would want to control the legal representative position on the closing date. But this involves registration with the Business Registration Authority. Many sellers are reluctant to change the legal representative position before closing without receiving payment of the purchase price.

 In the past, a company can only have one legal representative. However, under the Enterprise Law 2014, a company can have two or more legal representatives. As such, the parties can agree that the target company will have two legal representatives appointed by the seller and the buyer. The legal representative appointed by the seller will continue to run the target company up until closing and will resign on closing. The legal representative of the buyer will assume control on closing. And after closing, the target company will deregister the legal representative appointed by the seller.

Since the end of 2018, the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises (CMSC) will become the new Owner Representative Agency (Cơ quan đại diện chủ sở hữu) of 19 large SOEs including State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), Petro Vietnam (PVN), Vietnam Electricity (EVN), Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex). This change causes some SOEs to have CMSC as the common Owner Representative Agency, which may cause these SOEs to become related persons according to the Enterprise Law 2014, because: