The Ministry of Finance has asked the Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Joint Stock Corporation (Sabeco) to pay about VND2.5 trillion (US$111 million) worth of undistributed profit to the State Budget.

The inquiry follows a recent report of the State Audit of Viet Nam, which in March proposed Sabeco pay the same amount of money to the State Budget.

According to the audit report sent to the Government, that amount of money was part of Sabeco’s VND2.7 trillion in undistributed profit and considered the dividend that the Government should have received from Sabeco for its 89.6 per cent stake in the company recorded as of December 31, 2016.

Sabeco should have paid the dividend to the State as the Government was holding nearly 89.6 per cent of the brewer prior to 2016, not 36 per cent – the State’s remaining stake in Sabeco after selling 53.6 per cent in December 2017 – as reported in the firm’s financial statements, the audit agency said in its report.

This action did not comply with Decree 99/2012 issued by the Government in November 2012 regulating obligations and duties that State-owned enterprises should uphold to ensure efficient use of the State capital in their businesses, causing losses for the State Budget, the auditor said.

According to Article 7 of the Law of State Audit 2015, Sabeco must pay this amount of money to the State Budget as the audit report is mandatory for any businesses and organisations that are reported to have misused and mismanaged the State investment in their capital, the finance ministry said in its letter to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

Thus, the finance ministry requested the MoIT to direct its State-capital representative at Sabeco to quickly make the payment requested by the State audit agency.

MoIT and Sabeco should have reported their final results to the Corporate Finance Agency under the Ministry of Finance by April 30, the finance ministry said.

In a response made earlier to the State audit, Sabeco said it could not take immediate actions regarding the audit’s requests as the requests do not correspond to the Law of Enterprise and Sabeco’s corporate charter.

“Sabeco has neither finalised the list of shareholders nor asked for shareholders’ approval on the dividend payout,” the company said. “The dividend payout rate will be determined after the company finalises the list of beneficial shareholders and has a plan for the dividend payment.”

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has asked for instructions from the Government to completely resolve the issue, according to Truong Thanh Hoai, Director of the Heavy Industry Department under MoIT.

The amount of money, which has been frequently requested by the finance ministry and the State audit, had been isolated and action is pending the final decision of the Government, according to Hoai. — VNS