The Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank-VCB), the leading among 37 partly private lenders in Vietnam, plans to get its shares listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange in the third quarter of this year at the latest, or the end of September, said VCB’s General Director Nguyen Phuoc Thanh.
Vietcombank won approval in principle to list on the exchange without first having sold 20 per cent of its shares to the public early last year under the state regulation.
It will be allowed to list 9.28 per cent of its capital or 112.3 million shares.
The listing has been delayed for one year as the Hanoi-based lender has still not found foreign strategic investors due to the disagreement on the share price. Some wanted only a 5 per cent stake instead of the 10 per cent-15 per cent set by the government, VCB’s Chairman Nguyen Hoa Binh said.
Investors had to pay up to VND107,860 for each share of Vietcombank at the IPO, while the share price is now VND30,000-VND40,000 in the over-the-counter market.
At the annual shareholders’ meeting April 28, Vietcombank approved the project to issue an additional 112.3 million shares to its existing shareholders at 1-to-1 ratio to boost its capital size to VND13.2 trillion (US$779.2 million) from current VND12.1 trillion.
The proceed from the share sale, which is aimed to ensure the minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR), will be used to expand business and invest in the bank’s subsidiaries, joint ventures in 2009.
This year, VCB targets to obtain pretax profit of VND3.32 trillion, equal to that of last year, and total assets up 11 per cent to VND246.4 trillion. It will promote and attract small-to-medium enterprises, individual and institutional customers to balance risk and boost retail banking this year. (Securities Investment, Vietnam Economic Times)
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