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Real estate project’s top bidder withdraws
The winner of a bid for a high-value plot of land in the heart of HCM City has announced a decision to withdraw from the project.
On Friday, Tran Bac Ha, chairman of the management board of the Bank of Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) - the operator of the Thai Son Consortium - confirmed that the consortium will withdraw from the project to develop a high-rise building complex worth over US$300 million.
Ha said the consortium had sent a dispatch to the HCM City People’s Committee, affirming its decision to suspend the project to develop the complex on a 13,000sq.m plot of land on a prime location in HCM City’s District 1.
Such highly valuable real estate is often known informally in Viet Nam as Golden Land.
The complaints of the bidding results raised by the rivals in the bidding were the major reason behind Thai Son’s withdrawal.
In a statement released earlier last week, BIDV said complaints and disputes might affect the project.
Despite the decision to withdraw from the project, BIDV affirmed that the plot of 13,000sq.m of land surrounded by Tran Hung Dao, Pham Ngu Lao and Nguyen Thai Hoc streets was "a prime location" and in a "very favourable position".
The bidding was held by HCM City Department of Planning and Investment on December 17, 2007 and the result of the bidding, ratified by HCM City People’s Committee, was announced in May last year with Thai Son Consortium as the winner.
Its members are Thai Son Investment Construction Corp, Chi Thanh Investment Corp, Sunlight Finance Investment Joint-Stock Co, BIDV, BIDV Land Joint-Stock Company, Hanwha E&C Company, Hanshin E&C Company and Hanwha Galleria Company.
The consortium submitted a bid worth some VND4.9 trillion for implementing the project and offered goodwill assistance of some VND1.9 trillion ($105 million) and became the winner of the bid, as approved in a decision signed on April 11 by the deputy chairman of HCM City People’s Committee, Nguyen Thanh Tai.
Construction of the project is scheduled to be completed five years after land compensation is finished.
However, one of Thai Son’s rivals in the bidding, Khanh Gia Consortium, has lodged a lawsuit against HCM City authorities over the decision to award the land-use right for the plot to Thai Son.
Khanh Gia Consortium includes Khanh Gia Joint-Stock Company, along with Korean companies PungKyung, Ssang Yong Engineering and Construction Company and Doosan Heavy Industry Company.
Lam Truc Nho, general director of Khanh Gia Joint Stock Company, said they had strong evidence to prove that the procedures were "dubious and unfair".
Government inspectors intervened and after the inspection asked the Prime Minister to annul the results of the bidding for the land held in December 2007.
While awaiting the PM’s decision on the solutions for the "Golden Land" project, the representative of Khanh Gia Consortium, lawyer Nguyen Van Quynh, said Khanh Gia had been pursuing the project because they had "experience and sufficient financial capacity" for such a project.
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