Court orders Vietnam's Rang Dong Holding to pay $6.4 mln to Japan’s Sojitz Pla-Net

Rang Dong Holding has lost a court case and will have to pay Japan’s Sojitz Pla-Net Corporation a sum of VND156.9 billion ($6.4 million), excluding fees and interest.

Listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) as RDP, the plastics maker made the disclosure last Saturday following a decision from the Ho Chi Minh City Court of Appeal.

In September 2017, Sojitz Pla-Net, under Sojitz Corporation, signed a contract which the former purchased five million RDP shares for VND174.4 million ($7.2 million).

Soon after, Sojitz Pla-Net terminated the contract, accusing RDP of violating its terms. It asked RDP to return 90% of the contract value, equivalent to VND156.9 billion ($6.4 million)

When RDP did not oblige, Sojitz Pla-Net sued it at the Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC) in July 2022. The SIAC ruled in favour of Sojitz Pla-Net and asked RDP to compensate it with VND156.9 billion ($6.4 million), plus an interest of 10% per year starting April 2020 as also other legal fees.

In reply, RDP said the SIAC’s decision was not lawful. It said Sojitz Pla-Net failed to prove RDP’s violations and damages in the case. It also maintained that Sojitz Pla-Net had not submitted legal evidence and that documents lacked accreditation. The contract had unlawful terms related to employment at RDP’s subsidiary Rang Dong Long An, it alleged.

At the first-instance trial in January 2023, the HCMC court agreed with RDP and dismissed Sojitz Pla-Net’s request.

Later, the Court of Appeal in HCMC overturned the previous ruling and enforced the Singapore International Arbitration Center’s decision.

RDP made post-tax profits of VND11 billion ($451,050) on revenues of VND1.36 trillion ($55.8 million) in the first six months of this year, down 18.1% and up 7.6% year-on-year, respectively.