Sacombank: When the founder loses the right to represent

Sacombank: When the founder loses the right to represent

At the end of this year's Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh still held the position of Chairman of Sacombank, but the founder of this bank lost his representative rights.

The power of founder Dang Van Thanh at Sacombank has been significantly divided..

The annual general meeting of shareholders of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) held on May 26 finally approved the plan to change the legal representative. Accordingly,The legal representative of Sacombank for the 2012-2015 term will be the General Director.replacebecauseChairpersonBoard of Directors as before.

This also means that, although he was elected by the General Meeting of Shareholders to continue holding the position of Chairman, after 20 years of "holding the reins", Mr. Dang Van Thanh has lost the right to represent his bank.

On the way to ambition

In December 1991, the most difficult time of the country, the person who laid the first bricks to build Sacombank was Mr. Dang Van Thanh with 3 billion VND in charter capital, becoming one of the first joint stock commercial banks established in Ho Chi Minh City from the merger of 4 credit institutions.

Under the founder's leadership, Sacombank has continuously developed towards the goal of becoming one of the leading banks in the country. By 2009, Sacombank began opening branches in Cambodia and Laos - affirming its position not only in the domestic market but also wanting to expand to the three Indochinese countries. Mr. Thanh's ambition is to create a first-mover advantage to create a stepping stone for expanding the scope and mastering the market.

At the end of the period 2001 - 2010, Sacombank grew at an average rate of 64%/year. Up to now, after more than 2 decades of construction, Sacombank has a charter capital of more than 10,700 billion VND, total assets of more than 140,000 billion VND, 408 transaction points, present in 47 provinces and cities in the country and in Laos and Cambodia. In addition, Sacombank also established a subsidiary bank Sacombank Cambodia on the basis of converting from the Phnom Penh branch in October 2011.

Sacombank's 2011 operating situation was quite good with pre-tax profit increasing by 13% compared to 2010, reaching 101% of the plan. Overdue debt and bad debt were effectively prevented, at 0.86% and 0.56% of total outstanding loans, respectively, while the industry average was 3.4%, while ensuring most financial safety indicators in accordance with regulations.

Return on average equity (ROE) 14.6%; return on average assets (ROA) 1.44%; capital adequacy ratio (CAR) 11.66%.

Sharing power

At the peak stage, although Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh still held the position of Chairman, the Board of Directors of Sacombank had new faces.

While the old board of directors had only 7 members, Sacombank’s Board of Directors has now increased to 10 members, including only 2 “old members”, Mr. Thanh and his son. In other words, power has been “redistributed” at this bank in the context of the Board of Directors’ decision-making power being strengthened.

Accordingly, today's annual shareholders' meeting approved the plan to authorize the Board of Directors to decide on the bank's investment activities such as capital contribution plans to purchase and transfer shares of other enterprises and credit institutions within the total permitted investment capital limit.

Along with that, the General Meeting of Shareholders also authorized the Board of Directors to decide on the contents of research, selection, analysis and implementation of necessary procedures to request permission to merge other banks in the period of 2012-2015. At the same time, approved the plan to transfer a maximum of 15% of charter capital to foreign strategic partners in the period from now to 2015.

It is noteworthy that, as mentioned above, the congress approved the change of the bank's legal representative from Mr. Thanh to General Director.

Currently, the position of General Director of the bank belongs to Mr. Tran Xuan Huy, born in 1972. Mr. Huy joined Sacombank in 2000 as a Research and Development and Investment Specialist. Having held many positions from 2002 to 2007, in July 2007, Mr. Tran Xuan Huy was appointed to his current position.

Unlike the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors elected by the General Meeting of Shareholders, the position of General Director is decided by the Board of Directors and does not have a term of office like the position of Chairman. Therefore, in the coming time, it is expected that public opinion will focus its attention on this position at Sacombank.

The legal representative is first stipulated in the Civil Code. Accordingly, this is the head of the legal entity. As a legal representative, they have the right to establish and perform civil transactions on behalf of the enterprise for the benefit of the enterprise.

When the position of representative is changed from Chairman of the Board of Directors to General Director, decisions related to the bank will be made more quickly. Accordingly, the decision of the Chairman of the Board often has to be consulted with other members, making it difficult to respond to urgent situations.

In theory, the legal representative of a company does not necessarily have to hold the highest authority in the company. However, from the outside of the bank, the representative's voice is also the voice of the bank.

According to Dan Tri - VP