Vietnamese merger regulations
Under the Vietnamese Competition Law, an “economic concentration” is defined to include the following types of transactions:
(a) Merger of enterprises means the transfer by one or more enterprise(s) of all of its lawful assets, rights, obligations and interests to another enterprise and at the same time the termination of the existence of the merging enterprise(s).
(b) Consolidation of enterprises means the transfer by two or more enterprises of all of their lawful assets, rights, obligations and interests to form a new enterprise and at the same time the termination of the existence of the consolidating enterprises.
(c) Acquisition of an enterprise means the purchase by one enterprise of all or part of the assets of another enterprise sufficient to control or govern the activities of one or all of the businesses of the acquired enterprise. Controlling or governing all or one of the businesses of another enterprise means an enterprise (controlling enterprise) obtains ownership of the assets of another enterprise (controlled enterprise) sufficient to give the controlling enterprise 50% of the voting rights at the general meeting of shareholders, the board of management or other level sufficient according to law or the charter of the controlled enterprise to enable the controlling enterprise to govern the financial policies and operations of the controlled enterprise aimed at receiving economic benefit from the business operations of the controlled enterprise.
(d) Joint venture between enterprises means two or more enterprises together contribute a portion of their lawful assets, rights, obligations and interests to form a new enterprise.
Article 20.1 of the Competition Law provides that if the parties to a merger have a combined market share in a relevant market from 30% to up to 50% then the parties must notify the Vietnam Competition Authority of the enterprise acquisition before completing the merger unless the parties to the merger still remain a small and medium enterprise after the merger. A small and medium enterprise under Vietnamese law is subject to different criteria based on its business lines. But in general, a small and medium enterprise should not have more than 300 employees and a charter capital of more than VND 100 billion (about US$ 4.8 million). An economic concentration with a combined market share of more than 50% is prohibited unless an exemption is granted.
It is not clear whether voting rights of members of the Member’s Council of a Single LLC is based on (1) the amount of charter capital that such member represents, or (2) principle one person-one vote. Article 75.5 of the Enterprises 2014 provides that unless otherwise provided in the charter, each member of the Members’ Council of a Single LLC has one vote. This provision suggests that in the charter of the Single LLC, the owner of a Single LLC can allocate different voting rights to members of the Members’ Council who are usually the representatives of the owner in the Single LLC. The most common criteria is based on the amount of charter capital of the Single LLC represented by each member. The ability to allocate different voting rights to different members of a Single LLC is important since the owner of a Single LLC may have different shareholders who want to directly manage the Single LLC.
In the latest draft amendment to the Securities Law 2006, compared with the earlier draft, the following new points , among others, are introduced :
· “Indirect ownership” of securities is defined to mean holding securities through a “related person” or an entrustment arrangement.
· The criteria of a professional investor is reduced. A company with a paid-up charter capital of VND 100 billion (about US$ 4.5 million) instead of VND 1,000 billion can now qualify as a professional investor. An individual with a portfolio of VND 2 billion (instead of a trading volume of VND 2 billion per month) or annual taxable income of VND 1 billion can now qualify as a professional investor. Qualifying as a professional investor is important since only a professional investor or a strategic investor could participate in a private placement of shares by a public company.
· Major customers or counterparties are no longer considered as a related person of a public company.
· The latest draft amendment seems to allow for issuance of shares at a price below par value if the current trading price of the issuer is lower than par value.
Below is a list of key approvals and contracts required for a wind farm project in Vietnam (the Project):
Permission by provincial People’s Committee for the Project to carry out wind measurement;
Report on wind measurement result to the provincial People’s Committee;
Approval of the Pre-Feasibility Study of the Project;
Approval of the basic design part of the Feasibility Study of the Project;
In-principle Approval of the Project under the Investment Law 2014;
For a project financing or limited recourse financing in Vietnam, a mortgage over shares (or equity capital) of the project company usually forms part of the security package due to the ease of creating and perfecting a mortgage over shares. That said, when an enforcement event occurs and if the borrower or the project company does not cooperate, the lenders (usually foreign lenders), who wish to immediately taking over the mortgaged shares, may find it difficult to actually enforce the mortgage due to the need to complete various licensing procedures for the sale or transfer of the mortgaged shares.
Thanks to the flexibility offered by the Enterprises Law 2014 and the Investment Law 2014, lenders may now consider taking some extra measures to increase their ability to enforce the mortgaged over shares of a project company in Vietnam. In particular,
On 29 March 2019, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued Circular 3/2019 to amend and supplement some articles of Circular 32 of the SBV dated 26 December 2034 on restrictions in using foreign exchange within the territory of Vietnam (Circular 32/2013). Circular 3/2019 will take effect from 13 May 2019.
First, a bit of background, under the Foreign Exchange Ordinance, “in the territory of Vietnam” all transactions, payment, price denomination must not be made in foreign currencies except as permitted by the SBV. The SBV usually takes quite a restrictive (and, in our opinion, not reasonable) on what transactions are considered to occur “in the territory of Vietnam”.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of licenses, permits and requirements on environment which an industrial park in Vietnam need to comply with.
1. Environment impact assessment report (EIAR – Báo cáo đánh giá tác động môi trường) or environment protection plan (EPP – Kế hoạch bảo vệ môi trường).
2. Confirmation on completion of the environmental protection works (Xác nhận hoàn thành công trình bảo vệ môi trường).