Saigon Seafood Trading Joint Stock Company has just announced a loss of over 1,100 billion VND in 2025, bringing the total accumulated loss to approximately 2,700 billion VND, while its charter Capital is only 88 billion VND. The core of the problem began in 2009, when the company borrowed approximately 103 billion VND in cash and 5,833 ounces of gold from Phuong Nam Bank (now Sacombank), equivalent to an additional 100 billion VND at that time.
The problem lies not in the initial loan size, but in the loan structure. When borrowing in gold, the debt obligation is not fixed in Vietnamese Dong but fluctuates with the price of gold. Over nearly 20 years, the price of gold has risen sharply, causing the value of the debt to balloon over time. Adding interest, the total current obligation has reached approximately 2,400 billion VND, more than 10 times the initial amount, and is almost impossible to recover.
Essentially, this is a form of margin trading: borrowing a highly volatile asset without any risk control mechanism. There are no stop-loss orders, no hedges, and no holding time limits. Unlike crypto, where positions are liquidated early, this model allows risk to accumulate silently and only become apparent when it has spiraled out of control.
The lesson here is clear: when you use leverage on an asset whose volatility you don't control, time doesn't make you safer; it only increases the risk.
