A true story that sounds like a joke: Thermal power giant mistakes loss for profit, mobilizes 1,800 billion

On March 20, 2025, Thang Long Thermal Power Joint Stock Company sent an official dispatch to the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) requesting to correct the information published on March 27, 2024 regarding the 2023 financial report.

Accordingly, Thang Long Thermal Power Plant mistook the column "previous period" for "reporting period" and vice versa.

This means that in the reporting period of 2023, this enterprise actually lost more than 528 billion VND but mistakenly reported a profit of nearly 122 billion VND in 2022.

Actual equity at the end of 2023 decreased to VND 3,981 billion, but in the report nearly a year ago, Thang Long Thermal Power recorded it as more than VND 4,509 billion.

The actual debt/equity ratio is also worse at 2.46 times, instead of 2.38 times as in the report published on March 27, 2024.

This was a serious mistake because it happened right before Thang Long Thermal Power issued two new bonds, with a total of nearly VND 1,800 billion for the domestic market.

Specifically, on August 22, 2024, Thang Long Thermal Power issued bond lot TLPCH2427001, with a face value of VND 100 million/bond, interest rate of 10%, equivalent to an issuance value of VND 899.5 billion, due on August 22, 2027.

Then, on September 16, 2024, Thang Long Thermal Power issued bond lot TLPCH2427002 with a volume of 9,000 bonds, face value of VND 100 million/bond, interest rate of 10%, equivalent to the mobilized value of VND 900 billion, due on September 16, 2027.

After nearly 1 year, on March 20, 2025, Thang Long Thermal Power corrected its 2023 financial report (announced on March 27, 2024). Source: HNX

Both of these bonds are “three no” bonds – non-convertible, non-warrant and non-collateralized. The depository is An Binh Securities JSC – a subsidiary of Geleximco.

Thus, Thang Long Thermal Power issued the above 2 bonds at a time after this enterprise announced false information about business results, from loss to profit.

Previously, Thang Long Thermal Power had repeatedly bought back previously issued bonds.

In August and September 2024, Thang Long Thermal Power issued 2 bond lots, with a total value of nearly 1,800 billion VND.

Up to now, Thang Long Thermal Power still has 3 bond lots in circulation, including the 2 above-mentioned bond lots and lot TLPCH2126001. This is a bond lot issued on December 30, 2021 with a term of 5 years with a total value of 1,125 billion VND, but has been bought back for 717 billion VND, leaving 408 billion VND.

Thus, the value of Thang Long Thermal Power's outstanding bonds is currently more than 2,200 billion VND.

It is worth mentioning that in dozens of times of buying back a part of the TLPCH2126001 bond lot before maturity, Thang Long Thermal Power has only bought 717 billion VND, while in 2024, it issued an additional nearly 1,800 billion VND, during the period of time when the information was published incorrectly compared to the truth.

Thang Long Thermal Power Joint Stock Company is currently the investor of the Thang Long Thermal Power Plant project in Quang Ninh province. This is a member of Geleximco Group, the first private thermal power plant owner in Vietnam.

Thang Long Thermal Power has had poor business results recently.

According to HNX, in the first half of 2024, Thang Long Thermal Power Joint Stock Company continued to suffer a loss after tax of nearly 458 billion VND, compared to a loss of more than 528 billion VND in the same period (first 6 months of 2023).

Thang Long Thermal Power was established in 2007, with the main field of operation being electricity production, transmission and distribution. General Director is Nguyen Van Anh.

Thang Long Thermal Power Plant has a designed capacity of 2x300MW, including 2 units, with a total investment of 900 million USD. The project officially connected both units to the grid in 2018 after three years of implementation.

Trading of 3 lots of bonds worth nearly 3,500 billion related to Tien Phong Securities was suspended . Three lots of bonds of Tracodi Construction and Gia Khang Investment, Trade and Services, worth a total of nearly 3,500 billion VND were forced to stop trading from March 20.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/chuyen-that-nhu-dua-dai-gia-nhet-dien-nham-lo-thanh-lai-huy-dong-1-800-ty-2384058.html