Former Sacombank leader nominated for Bamboo Airways board

Phan Dinh Tue, who resigned as deputy general director of Sacombank on Thusday, has been nominated by a group of shareholders holding an over 55% stake in Vietnamese private carrier Bamboo Airways to the airline's board of directors.

Tue will continue as a board member of the private bank for the 2022-2026 term. Tue, born in 1966, has nearly 40 years of experience in the financial and banking sector. At Sacombank, he was deputy general director from mid-2012.

Major shareholders in Bamboo Airways Le Thai Sam (38.28% stake) and Doan Huu Doan (16.85%) also nominated six candidates for board of members for the 2023-2028 term.

Sam and Doan have nominated themselves for the new term, along with Nguyen Ngoc Trong and Le Ba Nguyen. All four candidates have recently resigned from the board for the 2019-2024 term.

This majority shareholder group also put forward Tran Hoa Binh and Hideki Oshima as candidates.

Hideki Oshima, born in 1962, is the former director of international relations and aviation alliance at Japan Airlines, the second largest airline in Japan. In May, Bamboo Airways chairman Nguyen Ngoc said that Oshima would join the airline's board of directors and executive board. Former chairman of Japan Airlines Masaru Onishi is also expected to take on the role of senior advisor to the board.

Bamboo Airways has reported a loss of VND17.6 trillion ($748 million) in 2022, about $84 million higher than the combined figure of Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air. The figures will be officially released at the airline's annual general meeting of shareholders on June 21.

In 2022, Bamboo's revenue increased by nearly 3.3 times compared to 2021, reaching VND11.73 trillion ($498.96 million). Despite this improvement, Bamboo Airways has not been able to post a gross profit. The carrier said it suffered a gross loss due to difficulties in the Northeast Asian market and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which caused jet fuel prices to skyrocket.

Bamboo Airways currently owns a fleet of 30 aircraft, while Vietnam Airlines has over 110 planes, and Vietjet has over 80.

At the end of December 2022, equity stayed at negative VND835 billion ($35.5 million), while at the beginning of the year it was VND16.78 trillion ($713.78 million).

Bamboo Airways currently has a charter capital of VND18.5 trillion ($789 million), equivalent to 1.85 billion shares.

At a Bamboo Airways extraordinary shareholder meeting on April 10, the airline's plan to increase its charter capital was rejected by a 56.42% majority. The firm had presented plans to issue 996.2 million shares in 2023 in order to raise nearly VND10 trillion ($425.55 million) and increase its charter capital to nearly VND28.07 trillion ($1.2 billion).