According to the list of employers with overdue social insurance, health insurance, labor accident insurance and occupational disease insurance contributions for more than 1 month, recently announced by the Hanoi Social Insurance Agency, as of February 29, 2024, the whole city has 60,757 businesses with insurance debts.
In this list, there is the presence of Century Real Estate Joint Stock Company (Cen Land, stock code CRE, HoSE floor) which has 2 months of overdue social insurance contributions, equivalent to over VND 1.04 billion.
Cen Land was named as a late payer of SSI in the context of declining business and bond defaults
It is worth mentioning that Cen Land has been late in paying social insurance in the context of the company’s deteriorating business. According to the consolidated financial report of the fourth quarter of 2023, Cen Land recorded revenue of VND 330.5 billion, twice the same period last year. After deducting the cost of goods sold, gross profit was at VND 52 billion, an improvement from the gross loss of VND 55.6 billion in the same period.
After deducting various expenses, in addition to a loss of VND 3 billion from other activities, Cen Land reported a net profit of just over VND 1.2 billion, increasing by 104% compared to the loss of over VND 62 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022.
In 2023, Cen Land achieved revenue of VND 932 billion, a decrease of 73% compared to the previous year. Financial revenue also decreased 41% to VND 66 billion. Despite cutting costs, CRE still reported a sharp decline of 78% in net profit, reaching only VND 2.5 billion.
In terms of capital structure, as of December 31, 2023, Cen Land recorded debts payable of VND 1,489 billion (down 25% from the beginning of the year). In which, short-term financial borrowings decreased sharply by 22% to VND 785 billion (overdue debts accounted for VND 450 billion), while long-term debts also decreased to just over VND 1.3 billion.
The declining business has made it difficult for CRE to repay the principal and interest on bonds. In particular, at the end of 2023, Cen Land was granted an extension of the CRE202001 bond with a value of VND 450 billion. Accordingly, CRE changed the bond term from 3 years to 4 years and 1 month; the modified maturity date is January 31, 2025. The interest rate starting from the interest calculation period from January 1, 2024 is 12% per year.
It is known that this is the only bond batch circulating of Cen Land. On January 2, 2024, Cen Land paid the entire principal amount of over VND 96.45 billion of bond CRE202001. However, this enterprise only paid nearly VND 502 million in total of VND 25.9 billion of overdue interest.
The company said it is in negotiation with the bondholders regarding the new payment term for the overdue interest of the VND 450 billion bond batch. The scheduled payment plan is expected to extend the maximum payment period to 3 months from January 2, 2024.
