Rights and obligations to attend creditors’ meetings in Vietnam

Right to attend creditors’ meetings in Vietnam

Pursuant to Article 77 of the Law on Bankruptcy 2014, the persons entitled to attend the creditors’ meetings are:

- The creditors whose names are on the list of creditors. The creditors can authorize others to attend the creditors' meetings and the rights and obligations of the authorized persons are the same as the creditors’. Such authorization must be recorded in writing;

- The representatives of the employees, representatives of the Trade Union that are authorized by the employees. The rights and obligations of the authorized persons are the same as the creditors’.

- The guarantors having paid the debts of the insolvent entities; in this case, the guarantors are the unsecured creditors.

Rights and obligations to attend creditors’ meetings in Vietnam (Internet image)

Obligation to attend creditors’ meetings in Vietnam

Pursuant to Article 78 of the Law on Bankruptcy 2014, the persons submitting the written request for the initiation of the bankruptcy process prescribed in Article 5 of this Law, owners or legal representatives of the insolvent entities must attend the creditors' meetings. They can authorize others to attend the creditors’ meetings and the rights and obligations of the authorized persons are the same as the authorizing persons’. Such authorization must be recorded in writing.

If the representatives of the insolvent entities are intentionally absent from the creditors’ meetings without legitimate excuses, the asset management officers, asset management enterprises shall send written requests to the People’s Court for imposition of penalties under the regulations of the law

Contents and sequence of creditors’ meetings in Vietnam

Pursuant to Article 81 of the Law on Bankruptcy 2014, a creditors' meeting shall be conducted as follows:

- The appointed Judge shall declare the creditors’ meeting open;

- The creditors’ meeting shall vote on the appointment of a Secretary made by the asset management officer and asset management enterprise to record the creditors' meeting in writing;

- The asset management officer and asset management enterprise shall report the absence and presence of the participants in the creditors’ meeting according to the summonses of the People’s Court, reasons for absence and check the IDs of the participants in the creditors’ meeting.

- The Judge shall announce the participants in the creditors’ meeting and the handling of written request for the initiation of the bankruptcy process to the creditors' meeting;

- The asset management officer and asset management enterprise shall report the current conditions of business and finance of the insolvent entity; the result of the inventory of assets, list of creditors, list of debtors, and other necessary issues to the creditors’ meeting;

- The owner or the legal representative of the insolvent entity shall give opinions about the report delivered by the asset management officer and asset management enterprise and propose the solutions to the reorganization of the business, the ability and deadline to pay the debts;

- The creditors or representatives of the creditors shall present the requests for bankruptcy settlement, reasons, purposes and bases of such requests;

- The involved entities of representatives of them shall give their opinions about their rights and obligations related to the handling of request for the initiation of bankruptcy process;

- The witnesses shall give opinions; the assessors and representative of the price assessing agency shall present the assessment result, valuation result; other judicial assistant shall clarify the unclear issues or conflicts;

- The asset management officer and asset management enterprise shall publish the written opinions, documents and evidences provided by the absentees.

- The creditors' meeting shall discuss the report delivered by the asset management officer and asset management enterprise and opinions of the participants in the creditors' meeting;

- The asset management officer, asset management enterprise and the participants in the creditors' meeting can request the Judge to give a Decision to replace the legal representative of the insolvent entity;

- The creditors can establish their Representative board.

The Resolution of the creditors’ meeting shall be passed when more than half of the unsecured creditors attend and representatives of at least 65% of the unsecured debts approve. The Resolution of the creditors’ meeting shall apply to every creditors.

Mai Thanh Loi

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