Chairman of Vietnam's top affordable housing developer faces exit ban over tax arrears

Tax authorities in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho have banned Truong Anh Tuan, chairman of Hoang Quan Group, among the leading affordable housing developers in southern Vietnam, from leaving the country over tax arrears.

The temporary ban from overseas travel against Tuan, also chairman of Hoang Quan Can Tho Investment Real Estate JSC, has been in place since June 19, the Can Tho Taxation Department said in a note on Wednesday.

The company had tax arrears of VND6.15 billion ($243,035) as of end-May, the tax agency said, adding that the ban will be lifted once all the taxes due have been paid.

Hoang Quan Can Tho Investment Real Estate JSC is an affiliate of Hoang Quan Group, better known as Hoang Quan Consulting-Trading- Real Estate Service Corp, with the latter owning a 39% stake, according to Hoang Quan Group’s Q1/2024 financial statements.

Shares in Hoang Quan Group, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange as HQC, plunged 6.6% to VND3,530 ($0.14) apiece at the close on Wednesday.

Before this ban, tax authorities in the neighboring province of Vinh Long had announced a similar exit ban against Tuan, the legal representative of Hoang Quan Mekong Corp, for similar reasons. The restriction was lifted on June 19.

Established in 2000, Hoang Quan Group is a top low-end housing developer in southern Vietnam with a portfolio totaling thousands of units.

In May, it partnered with Novaland to develop a total of 250,000 social housing units, accounting for one fourth of the government's target of building at least one million homes for low-income earners by 2030.

For 2024, the firm is targeting a net profit of VND100 billion ($3.95 million) on revenue of VND2,000 billion, up 19-fold and 6-fold from 2023, respectively.

In Q1, it made a consolidated net profit of VND5.24 billion ($207,257) on revenue of VND13.39 billion, its financial statements showed.

Travel bans have become common since the start of this year, when a spate of local companies faced tax arrears charges. Earlier this month, the Danang Taxation Department took action against Nguyen Ngoc Thao, chairman and legal representative of real estate developer Trungnam Land, which owed arrears of VND583 billion ($22.9 million).