Businesspeoples Divorce Cases Damage Strong Brands

The “Coffee King” dispute

The divorce and asset dispute between Dang Le Nguyen Vu, dubbed the Coffee King, and Le Hoang Diep Thao, has caused big losses to Trung Nguyen Group.

Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that Dang Le Nguyen Vu, as the representative of Trung Nguyen, the owner of Trung Nguyen and G7 brands, has asked the General Department of Customs (GDC) to prevent exports from the branch of Trung Nguyen Instant Coffee JSC made in Bac Giang province.

This is a branch managed by Le Hoang Diep Thao, Vu’s wife.

All the coffee export consignments, which were about to be shipped, have been suspended.

The “Bakery King” dispute

Kao Sieu Luc, the founder of Duc Phat Bakery brand, is called ‘Bakery King’ because he has created more than 400 types of cakes.

After the divorce, Luc and his wife received 10 shops of the bakery chain each. They came to an agreement that one of them would retain the brand and pay $1 million to the partner. His wife agreed to pay $1 million for the right to use the brand.

Later, Luc set up a new chain, ABC Bakery, with capital of VND30 billion. ABC Bakery is the supplier of sandwich bread, pastry and hamburger buns to KFC, Lotteria, Burger King and McDonald’s.

Bao Son Group and the dispute over VND10 trillion assets

The divorce case of Bui Duc Minh and Nguyen Thanh Thuy of Bao Son Group in 2011 caught special attention from the public as it was related to huge assets worth VND10 trillion.

The assets included the land-use right at An Khanh – Hoai Duc high-end ecotourism project, which, according to Minh, was worth no less than $500 million.

Bao Son is well known as the developer of the first private high-end hotel in Hanoi. It is also well known for huge projects, including Bao Son Paradise.

Nam Sao Group and the VND2 trillion divorce

In December 2012, the divorce case of Tran Van Muoi, chair and CEO of Nam Sao International Group, and Pham Huong Giang, deputy director of Dai Tay Duong Inspection, was on trial in HCMC.

Giang said they had assets worth VND2 trillion, including 10 villas in HCMC, Vung Tau and Hai Phong, a car, and shares, and she wanted 50 percent of the assets.

But Muoi argued that most of the assets were borrowed, and that they could be divided only after paying debts. It’s unclear how the case will end. 

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Thanh Lich