New guidance on registration of mortgage of land use right and construction works - Part 2

On 25 November 2019, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) issued Circular 7 guiding some contents of mortgage of land use right and asset attached to land (Circular 7/2019). Circular 7/2019 will take effect from 10 January 2020 and replace Joint Circular 9 of the MOJ and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) dated 23 June 2016 (Joint Circular 9/2016) on the same subject matter. In general, Circular 7/2019 only provides some guiding and supplementing provisions for Decree 102 of the Government dated 1 September 2017 (Decree 102/2017) rather than providing detailed guidance as Joint Circular 9/2016.

Registration that must be completed before the registration of mortgage of land use right and construction works

Circular 7/2019 regulates that following kinds of registration of change to land and/or asset attached to land or confirmation of change must be completed before a person can register a mortgage of land use right and construction works:

(i) the information relating to land parcel or land parcel area is inconsistent with the information on the Certificate due to land consolidation, measurement or re-determination of land area/size; and

(ii) the information relating to asset attached to land certified on the Certificate (including kind of house, name of building, number of floors, building area, use area) is inconsistent with the information on the new Certificate due to measurement or re-determination of area, construction, or repair.

In the past, if there is change in (i) above, such change can be registered at the same time with the mortgage registration.

Hyperlink cross-references in contracts in Vietnam

It is quite common to cross-refer to a document in a contract by placing an internet hyperlink to such document (e.g., privacy policy or website standard terms). This practice should be valid under Vietnamese law. This is because:

· Under the Civil Code 2015, a contract may have appendices attached to it which provide details on certain term and conditions of the contract. The law does not clearly regulate the form of the appendices of the contract and the word “attached to” has a broad interpretation that may be general enough to cover an internet hyperlink to the main contract.

· Article 119.1 Civil Code 2015 allows a civil transaction by way of electronic means in the form of data messages in accordance with the Law on E-transaction will be deemed to be written transaction. Under the Law on Electronic Transactions 2005, a contract can be presented in the form of data messages and still valid and binding.

Exemptions Of Tender Offer Under The Securities Law 2019

Under the Securities Law 2019, regarding a public joint stock company (the target company), those entities who fall into tender offer triggering circumstances do not have to conduct a tender offer in some specific circumstances. In particular:

· Circumstance 1: Purchasing of newly issued shares, which results in the ownership reaching the tender offer triggering limits, in accordance with the issuance plan approved by the target company’s General Shareholder Meeting.

· Circumstance 2: Receiving the transfer of the outstanding voting shares, which results in the ownership reaching the tender offer triggering limits, as approved by the target company’s General Shareholder Meeting. In such circumstances, the General Shareholder Meeting must clearly identify the transferor and the transferee.