Bamboo Airways' debt at Sacombank (STB) now has a specific asset and a specific price attached. According to a notice published on October 13, the bank is selecting an auction house for the commercial operating rights to six floors of the Xi Grand Court project in Ho Chi Minh City, with a starting price above VND 3,620 billion.CafeF
But this is only the first step of a long process. No auction date exists and the buyer conditions have not been released. So this piece does not guess how much of the debt will come back. It sets out what is actually being sold, where the procedure stands, and which ways the auction could go. What the headlines leave out usually sits in the type of asset, so that is where we start.
What is on sale is not a land title
The asset in the notice is a property right arising from a sale contract between Dau An Sai Gon Real Estate Investment and Development JSC and Phu Son Thuan Construction Investment JSC. The right is tied to the commercial operation of six floors of Xi Grand Court at 256-258 Ly Thuong Kiet, Dien Hong ward, formerly ward 14, District 10.CafeF
The scale is large. Commercial floor area totals 47,316 m²: floor 1 covers 8,142 m², floor 2 covers 8,049 m², floors 3 and 4 cover 9,047 m² each, and the two remaining floors cover 5,400 m² and 7,631 m².Markettimes Floor 4 includes a cinema of 1,798 m².Znews
Dividing the starting price by total floor area values each square meter at about VND 76.5 million. That is Investify's own calculation from the two figures above, not a number the seller published. It also cannot be compared directly with apartment prices in the same area, because the buyer receives neither apartment ownership nor land.
The winning bidder does not receive a land-use certificate in its own name. It receives rights generated by a contract between two other companies. When Sacombank decided to seize this chain of rights in June, the package was described as including the right to demand payment, rights to operate, transfer, lease and manage, and the right to insurance proceeds, all arising from a contract for a building under construction signed on December 22, 2017.CafeF
With a plot of land that has a title, the buyer mainly checks the paper and the site. With a contract-based right, the buyer must read the underlying contract: has the seller met its obligations, did the original buyer pay in full, what rights does the developer retain over the commercial block, and is the space leased or empty. The October 14 reports do not answer these questions, and the sources we checked do not confirm whether the six floors are fully operating, partly operating, or idle.
The procedure is only at the auction-house stage
The October 13 notice is not an announcement of the auction itself. It is a call for auction organizations. Sacombank accepts applications from them for 3 working days after publication, and only then moves to later steps.Markettimes
Many steps remain before cash reaches the bank. The bank selects and signs with an auction house. The auction house publishes a sale notice with rules, a deposit amount and a deadline for buyer applications. The auction takes place. If there is a winner, the two sides sign a sale contract, the buyer pays, and only then are the operating rights transferred. Each step has its own deadline, and the October 13 notice names none of them.
The starting price next to the debt
Sacombank has not disclosed Bamboo Airways' outstanding balance. The working reference is an estimate from Vietcombank Securities (VCBS) in its late-September report: a debt of roughly VND 3,000-4,000 billion.Znews That is a brokerage estimate, not a figure the bank has published.
The starting price of more than VND 3,620 billion falls inside that range. If the asset sells at the starting price, this one lot could cover most of the debt as VCBS estimates it.
The comparison has two limits, though. First, the real debt includes interest and handling costs, which the VND 3,000-4,000 billion range does not break out. Second, under the general principle for disposing of collateral, a bank may keep only what it needs to cover the debt and costs, and any surplus belongs to the party that pledged the asset. So a winning price above the debt does not bring Sacombank extra money.
This lot is not the only collateral
Before Xi Grand Court, on March 31, 2026, Sacombank issued a decision to seize 355 certificates of land-use and housing ownership rights in Zone C, a villa area within the Dak Doa complex in Gia Lai, covering more than 86,308 m². The owner is FLC Group JSC, and the bank planned to carry out the seizure between April 22 and June 22, 2026.CafeF The October 14 reports do not say whether that land has gone to auction.
The two groups differ clearly in nature. The Gia Lai lot is hundreds of certificates in a resort area outside the big cities. Xi Grand Court is one continuous block of commercial floor space in inner-city Ho Chi Minh City, with a large starting price. Among the collateral for this loan that the press has named, Xi Grand Court is the first with a published starting price. That makes this auction the first real test of how much of the debt comes back.
Three ways the auction can go
A bid at or above the starting price
The condition is at least one financially qualified buyer who has read the legal file on the operating rights and accepts roughly VND 76.5 million per square meter of floor space. The earliest signal is the number of buyer registrations once the auction house opens applications.
If this happens, proceeds are large enough relative to the debt VCBS estimates. Timing depends on the payment schedule in the post-auction sale contract, so the cash may not land cleanly in the fourth quarter.
The first round fails and the bank has to cut the price
The condition is that nobody registers, or nobody bids at the starting price. The amended Law on Property Auctions, effective January 1, 2025, defines when an auction counts as failed, but sets no fixed discount for bank collateral.PBGDPL Thai Nguyen The size of the cut, the number of rounds and the gap between them are decided by Sacombank together with the auction house.
The result is cash that arrives later and is smaller. Each round of price cuts widens the gap between proceeds and the debt.
The rights file itself keeps buyers away
The condition is that the legal file on the operating rights has gaps: unfinished payment obligations under the original contract, an unclear relationship with the developer Phu Son Thuan, or six floors that do not match the catalogue description. Unlike the second path, a price cut does not solve this, because buyers worry about the rights they would receive, not only the price.
If this happens, recovery could slip into next year. The bank would have to supplement the file, work with the parties to the original contract, or move to other assets.
The milestones that will answer the question
This piece does not claim any path is more likely, because the data cannot separate them. Three milestones will answer the question in order:
- Sacombank's announcement of the auction house it selects, expected shortly after the 3-working-day application window closes.
- The auction house's sale notice, which will carry the auction date, the deposit and the legal file for buyers to review.
- The result of the first round: a bid of VND 3,620 billion or more, or a rerun at a lower price.
Only the auction result will show how much of Bamboo Airways' debt comes back. Until then, every comparison with the debt is a starting price on paper.