According to information from Smiths Detection Asia – Pacific to Conteccons and Airports Corporation of Vietnam – ACV, the division’s reason for terminating its relationship with Conteccons was that Conteccons used documents obtained by Smiths. Detection is bidding for Package No. 5.10 – Construction and Installation of Long Thanh International Airport Passenger Terminal Equipment for Package No. 12. The structure and installation of equipment was damaged as a result of the construction of the T3 Passenger Terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport without the approval or permission of Smiths Detection.
In the opinion of Smiths Detection, Coteccons has not given a suitable explanation and does not have sufficient grounds to indicate that Coteccons is not involved in Package 12. Therefore, Smiths Detection will not have any involvement or any connection in supporting Coteccons projects in Vietnam starting from August 25, 2023
Conteccons is one of two consortiums participating in two tender packages, 5.10 and 12. Smiths Detection is a provider of scanning and risk detection technology to the aviation industry for investors.
In particular, Mr. Contract No. 12 – Construction and installation of equipment for the passenger terminal T3 – Tan Son Nhat closing time of trading is 09/06/2023 at 09:00. Conteccons participates in the consortium “Pearl of the Far East”. This consortium includes contractors: Unicons Construction Investment Company Limited; Construction joint-stock company “Conteccons”; CENTRAL construction joint-stock company; Electromechanical Joint Stock Company HAWEE; Joint Stock Company “REE Cold Engineering & Service”; 479 Hoa Binh Joint Stock Company.
Package No. 5.10 – Construction and installation of equipment for the passenger terminal of Long Thanh International Airport, Conteccons has joined the Hoa Lu joint venture. This consortium includes: Joint stock company Coteccons; Unicons Investment Company Limited; Thanh An Corporation; DELTA Construction Group Company Limited; Central Construction Company; Fong Construction Company; Hoa Binh Construction Group; Open Joint Stock Company Powerline Engineering.
However, in the two packages mentioned above, the winning device was declared by ACV to have no Conteccons. In particular, the Hoa Lu Consortium (with the presence of Conteccons) was excluded from the bidding round for package 5.10 – Long Thanh International Airport Terminal worth 35.00 billion VND. After the liquidation, this consortium also filed a motion for clarification, but also received a response from ACV that it organized the tender and tender in accordance with the law.
Under the tender package No. 12T3, the loser is Hon Ngoc Vien Dong Joint Venture (including Unicons Construction Investment Company Limited, Coteccons Construction Joint Stock Company, Central Construction Stock Company, Hawee Co JSC), electricity, REE, electrical engineering and services. Joint-Stock Company; 479 Hoa Binh Joint Stock Company).
After the elimination, the Hon Ngoc Vien Dong consortium launched a petition. However, according to ACV, based on the bids filed on June 9, 2023, the liquidator and contractor selection panel evaluated the technical proposals based on the correct requirements. Criteria, requirements and evaluation criteria are spelled out, ensuring the correctness of the order and procedures in accordance with the legislation on tenders.
Immediately following this letter, ACV, Smiths Detection, a global leader in scanning and threat detection technologies for the aviation industry, also sent Coteccons information about the termination of cooperation for the reasons indicated above.
In a short time, Conteccons lost two large tender packages. Meanwhile, the ecosystem of Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong, the founder of Coteccons, has consistently won the tender. In particular, Ricons is included in the 12T3 joint venture winner package – Tan Son Nhat and 3 companies, Newtecons, Ricons, Mr. Duong’s SOL E&C, recently entered the 5.10 package round – VND 35,000 billion Long Thanh International Airport, is the largest tender package of the project.
Coteccons revenue has been steadily falling after 3 years of replacing the “general”.
The recent luxury of Coteccons associated with high-priced tender packages has made many think about the powerful construction empire founded by Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong.
Kotekkons – Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong’s “old man” is known for his “cash” and “not bank” philosophy. However, since Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong left the company in 2020, Coteccons has been in constant trouble. Even Hoa Binh has surpassed him many times in the race for the lead.
While the “ecosystem” of Nguyen Ba Duong, including Newtecons, Ricons, SOL E&C, BM Windows, Boho Décor… constantly stirs the construction market. At the same time, Ricons and Newtecons respectively entered the top 3 and 4 largest contractors with sales in 2022 of more than 11,000 billion VND, immediately losing to the duo Hoa Binh – Coteccons.
This makes many think about the influence of the businessman born in 1959, who was once compared to the “unicorn”, “tycoon” of the construction industry.
In fact, even before Mr. Duong officially left Coteccons, many senior staff left the company one by one. After the founder stepped down as chairman, a number of longtime Coteccons board members followed suit. The Coteccons 2020 report says that the number of employees of the corporation at the end of 2020 was only 1659 people, which is almost 30% less than 2272 people at the end of 2019. Brain drain is one of the problems. This problem has been mentioned many times at Coteccons.
Although over the years, when the personnel apparatus was temporarily stable, the new management of Coteccons began to accelerate in order to win new contracts. However, over the years, Coteccons has hardly won any new tenders. In the first 6 months of 2021, Coteccons’ revenue was only VND 5.119 billion, which is 32% less than in the same period of 2020.
At that time, despite a sharp decline in revenue, Coteccons still had over 115 billion VND in income from financial activities, most of which was interest on bank deposits. This is one of the legacies that Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong left to Coteccons with one of the healthiest balance sheets in the industry, over VND3,000 billion in cash and no bank loans.
The period since Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong’s departure has also been a time of prolonged hardship due to the epidemic and subsequent fluctuations in the real estate and construction market in general, which has kept the Coteccons giants constantly struggling to secure revenue and bid packages. In the second quarter of 2021, Coteccons lost its number one position in both revenue and profit in the publicly traded construction group, a position that has long been a unique contractor. According to Bolat Duysenov, chairman of the board of Coteccons, this is only a temporary phenomenon amid the general difficulties of the entire industry, the company has done and will always try its best to get the best results.
However, with the recent loss of large-scale tender packages for international airports, Coteccons is becoming a real headache.