Recently, social networks have been spreading a lot of information related to Bamboo Airways, including a handwritten letter said to be sent by Mr. Trinh Van Quyet from detention. To verify this information, VietNamNet had an interview with Mr. Le Thai Sam, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bamboo Airways.

How do you evaluate the price of 220 VND/share of Bamboo Airways (BAV)? What criteria did the valuation unit, Vietnam Valuation Joint Stock Company, use to come up with the above valuation?

Mr. Le Thai Sam: According to the information I received in mid-2022, both the new investor and the shareholder hired a valuation unit to determine the value of shares of Bamboo Airways Joint Stock Company ( Bamboo Airway ) as a reference basis for determining the share transfer price.

Valuation data by Vietnam Valuation Joint Stock Company valued BAV shares at VND220/share, valuation data by UHY Auditing and Consulting Company valued at VND187/share.

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Mr. Le Thai Sam, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bamboo Airways. Photo: H. Thiem

The above two units have given results of determining the value of 1 BAV share that are not too different in absolute terms.

UHY Company uses 3 valuation methods, of which 2 methods give a value of 1 share less than 0 (<0). The remaining method is based on the share value of Vietnam Airlines and VietJet to calculate the value of BAV shares. Valuation units must comply with the regulations of the Ministry of Finance on valuation principles.

The aviation industry has faced numerous difficulties in recent years. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused huge losses for airlines because they have no revenue but still have to pay large expenses such as chartering ships, salaries for staff, etc. When the pandemic ended, a war broke out between Russia and Ukraine, leading to a sudden increase in oil prices, at times reaching over 160 USD/barrel.

BAV is a young airline that is gradually building its brand and service quality that is highly appreciated by customers, but it is facing continuous difficulties. As a result, BAV incurred large losses.

According to the audited financial report for 2022, BAV had negative equity of more than VND 800 billion, and debt payable of nearly VND 19,000 billion.

My subjective assessment of the valuation value is consistent with BAV’s situation. The new group of investors has supported Mr. Trinh Van Quyet with 370 billion VND in addition to the value of the share purchase agreement, and has also committed to many other conditions.

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Recently, there has been a lot of information on social networks related to Bamboo Airways. Photo: H. Thiem

- There is information that Mr. Trinh Van Quyet, through his family, requested the buyer to buy the shares and "influence" the buyer to quickly deposit the support amount as committed when buying shares, which is 500 billion VND, into the temporary account. What is your opinion on this?

First, I must affirm that the negotiations to buy back Mr. Trinh Van Quyet's shares were approved and closely monitored by the authorities.

All terms negotiated in the contract or agreement between me and Mr. Trinh Van Quyet are based on voluntariness, reasonableness and are supervised by the authorities.

Up to now, we (including me and Mr. Doan Huu Doan) have transferred nearly 370 billion VND to Mr. Quyet's family. The amount of 500 billion VND deposited into the temporary account was agreed to be paid within a period of 3 years, starting from April 2023. Up to this point, we are still fully and seriously implementing the agreed commitments.

- In light of the recent continuous rumors about Bamboo Airways, in addition to the information you just shared above, is there anything else you would like to clarify?

There has been a lot of inaccurate information on social media recently, so I hope everyone will get information from official sources that have been verified by the authorities.

For example, Facebook account "THANG DANG" posted slanderous and fabricated information about Mr. Duong Cong Minh, this has been clarified by the authorities.

I would like to confirm once again that Mr. Duong Cong Minh is only an advisor for Bamboo Airways, not an investor. The only investors are me and Mr. Doan Huu Doan.

Thank you!

Mr. Duong Cong Minh will cease his role as advisor from August 2023.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Trong, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bamboo Airways, who accompanied Mr. Trinh Van Quyet in building Bamboo Airways and also solved the airline's problems after Mr. Quyet was arrested, affirmed: "In early 2022, many investors were interested in Bamboo Airways. Novaland was one of many investors that we welcomed when former Chairman Trinh Van Quyet encountered an incident.

In fact, Novaland had many plans and ideas to cooperate and accompany Bamboo Airways. Novaland also provided financial support and lent office space to set up the airline's representative office on Hong Ha Street, Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City. However, due to unexpected internal problems, Novaland could no longer continue to accompany the restructuring process. We understand and sympathize with this.

After many surveys and evaluations, in the end, only the group of investors introduced by Mr. Duong Cong Minh remained, wanting to help Bamboo Airways stabilize and find development opportunities in the future.

We acknowledge the special role of Mr. Duong Cong Minh in Bamboo Airways. He introduced two new investors, Mr. Le Thai Sam and Mr. Doan Huu Doan, and Mr. Duong Cong Minh has agreed to be an advisor to the Board of Directors of Bamboo Airways.

Mr. Duong Cong Minh officially resigned from his position as advisor in August 2023.

When Bamboo Airways had not yet fully recovered from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, it encountered a major incident when its chairman and founder were arrested. Creditors such as banks, aircraft lessors, and service providers for Bamboo Airways continuously pressured to collect debts. The airline faced countless difficulties, but new investors joined to maintain and continue to develop the Tre Viet brand, which is very valuable.

The specific figures that the audit report later stated, the group of investors including Mr. Le Thai Sam and Mr. Doan Huu Doan lent Bamboo Airways an amount of up to nearly 8,000 billion VND. Thanks to that timely support, the airline has been able to maintain until now.

My wish now is for Bamboo Airways to be stable and have more strength to continue flying flights, and more broadly, to re-provide quality aviation services to people, contributing to stabilizing the aviation market, helping Vietnamese people to access airline tickets at the most suitable prices."