Indovina Bank Limited is selling the debt of the Duong Man company which is a part of the Hoa Binh Construction company ecosystem, that also includes among its assets, a gold plated hotel in Hanoi. The total debt up for sale is VND 482 billion or US$18.9 million that is secured with ‘real estate and stocks’ though It is not clear what real estate has been used to secure the debt.

The connection to the gold hotel in Hanoi, whether it’s up for grabs or not, is noteworthy in that it was finished in 2019 right before COVID-19 saw borders close for the better part of two years. Up to that point, Vietnam’s economy had been going gangbusters as Vietnamese real estate and construction tycoons issued bonds and borrowed money hand over fist expanding their empires. Hanoi’s gold plated hotel, in this context, was in many ways a symbol of Vietnam’s broad economic success during that period.

Then the pandemic hit and then China’s Evergrande ran into turmoil and combined these two events crushed consumer confidence in Vietnam in the country’s real estate industry.

As a result, real estate businesses that had been grossly over leveraged quickly tumbled with many going out of business while others did what they could to hold on. The aforementioned gold plated hotel was put up for sale last year, for example, to keep its parent company alive, though no sale was ever made. 

In this context, that the company that built a gold plated hotel right before COVID is now seeing its debts up for sale, is a sign of just how much things have changed in the last five years.

See also: How to Open a Hotel in Vietnam: Ultimate Guide 2024