FLC, Bamboo Airways appoint new chief as chairman arrested

Real estate major FLC Group and its subsidiary Bamboo Airways on Thursday announced the appointment of Dang Tat Thang as their new chairman starting from Thursday, following the arrest of Trinh Van Quyet.

Previously, Thang held the position of Vice Chairman of the duo and CEO of Bamboo Airways for the 2021-2026 term.

Dang Tat Thang, 41, graduated with a Master's degree in construction and project management from Northumbria University in the UK.

Thang has led Bamboo Airways to become one of the few airlines in Vietnam that can retain their growth in the period 2020-2021, despite the Covid-19 pandemic. The carrier operates on 70 domestic and international routes, carrying approximately 10 million passengers to date. The airline plans to grow its network to 120 routes by 2022, of which 40 are international routes.

Thang, who has effective and diverse management expertise, will continue to accompany FLC and Bamboo Airways to ensure that the two firms' activities are stable in the "normalization", in line with their goals and plans, a corporate release said.

The appointment will be effective until there is a new decision from the group. FLC will consider additional elections to finalise the board members’ structure.

The leadership changes are attributed to former Chairman Trinh Van Quyet's inquiry by the Ministry of Public Security's investigative agency for "stock market manipulation".

Prior to his arrest, Quyet handed FLC's Deputy General Director Vu Dang Hai Yen authority to execute all of his shareholder and property rights at FLC and Bamboo Airways. This authorisation remains in effect after Thang’s assignment.

Quyet, 47, is the biggest shareholder in FLC, holding a more than 30% stake. Quyet and FLC are the owners of Bamboo Airways, with 80% shareholding.

On January 10, Quyet was discovered to have sold 74.8 million FLC shares without informing the market in advance as required by the law, given his position as the company’s chairman.

The stock market regulator State Securities Commission (SSC) on January 17 fined Quyet VND1.5 billion (nearly $66,000) for his act and froze his securities trading account for five months. Previously, in November 2017, Quyet was fined $2,800 for selling 57 million shares without notifying the market regulator.

Sacombank, a lender of FLC Group, on Wednesday stated that the debt owed by the group is safe, with enough collateral. It said FLC is still fulfiling its debt payment obligations as committed under their lending contract. Another creditor OCB also stated FLC always pays debts in time.