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Home / Economy / Banking & Finance
Vietcombank to sell 10% stake to foreign investors
Ngoc Thuy 16:01, 2018/05/01
Vietcombank, Vietnam`s largest lender by market value, will offload a 10% stake to a maximum of ten foreign investors in the first half of this year after it received government approval for the sale, it announced at its recent annual shareholders` meeting.
The bank is in the process of identifying an asset valuer for the sale. 
 
Vietcombank is Vietnam's largest lender by market value.
Vietcombank is Vietnam's largest lender by market value.
"The offer for sale has attracted many foreign investors, including Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC. Japan's Mizuho Bank, the bank's largest foreign shareholder with a 15% stake, is also entitled to buy more shares to maintain its stakeholding at the bank," Vietcombank CEO Pham Quang Dung told local media. 

He also emphasized that the lender would favour foreign investors with a strong financial track record. Vietcombank is also considering allocating board seats to foreign investors after the stake sale. 

The bank plans to sell its stake in Military Bank (MB) and Vietnam Export and Import Bank (Eximbank) by this quarter as part of its effort to pare its ownership in other credit institutions under a directive issued by the State Bank of Vietnam. 

Under the central bank's Circular 36, commercial banks are allowed to hold stakes in a maximum of two other credit institutions, with the stake in each not exceeding 5 per cent of total equity. 

The lender now owns more than 126 million shares in MB (equivalent to 6.97 per cent of chartered capital) and over 101 million shares of Eximbank (equivalent to 8.2 per cent of chartered capital). 

The bank earned approximately VND172 billion ($7.56 million) by offloading its entire stake in Ho Chi Minh City-based Orient Commercial Bank (OCB) last month. 

Vietcombank`s pre-tax profit set a new height at VND4.3 trillion (US$189 million) in the first quarter, up 59% year on year, according to the bank`s consolidated financial report.

The figure is equivalent to one third of the year plan, in which Vietcombank's core business line of credit-investment has brought VND6.2 trillion (US$272.5 million) in revenue for the first quarter, up 17.5% compared to the same period of last year. 

For the period from 2018 to 2023, Vietcombank set plan for its assets to grow at an average 13% per year; credit growth at 16% per year; capital mobilization at 15% per year; return on equity (ROE) at 15%; and bad debt at the maximum of 1%; 

Under the bank's restructuring plan until 2020, the bank set its total assets value to reach US$60 billion, with owners' equity of US$4.5 billion. 

In Vietnam, foreign ownership in state banks is capped at 30%. Vietcombank is among the small number of banks that have a 9.12% stake reserved for foreign investors, stated Saigon Securities Research.
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