Police in southern Binh Duong province yesterday prevented employees at seven banks from taking goods from a local company as a measure to partly recover outstanding debts. At 12 pm June 6, dozens of cars carrying staff from many banks arrived at Truong Ngan Company in Di An Town in an attempt to take coffee stored in the company’s warehouse. The sudden appearance of the creditors caused disorder at the company and in surrounding areas, so police arrived and invited the representatives of the seven banks into a room for a meeting. These representatives were asked to present respective reports about the credit relations between them and Truong Ngan. According to the submitted reports and relevant banking documents, the company has yet to repay debts totaling about VND600 billion (US$28.85 million) to these banks, including  Military Bank, VIB, Oricombank, Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Maritime Bank, Vietinbank and Techcombank. Meanwhile, Nguyen Xuan Binh, Truong Ngan’s director, said the value of the 3,000 tons of coffee in the store was estimated at only VND100 billion, one-sixth of the total debt. When asked why they came to the company at the same time, the representatives said that they had been informed that Military Bank (MB) would send workers to Truong Ngan that day to take coffee as a distrainment, so they also sent their people to take part in the seizure to make up for the company’s unpaid debt. These representatives alleged that Truong Ngan had used the same volume of coffee as its mortgage at many banks at the same time.  After working with the representatives and the company’s director, the police decided to seal the warehouse pending settlement. While waiting for a resolution by concerned agencies, no individuals or organizations are allowed to take any coffee from the warehouse, police said.  While talking with Tuoi Tre, Binh said his company has operated as a coffee exporter since 2005 with an exported coffee volume between 30,000 and 70,000 tons per year.    The company was once prosperous and had good credit relations with the above banks. However, in recent years, the drop in prices of exported coffee and high lending interest have seriously affected the company’s operating results and driven it into insolvency.