Vietcombank to Complete Equitisation Plans By October

The Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) will complete and submit to the Prime Minister its equitisation plan for approval in October, after it receives a major guideline from the State Bank of Vietnam for its debt classification.

 

Currently, the unlisted Vietcombank is classifying debts, settling financial issues and selecting consultancy firms for its partial privatization plans. 

 

Vietcombank has established a list of the world’s 15 leading financial organizations specializing in consulting value appraisals and Initial Public Offerings (IPO).

 

To date, the Vietcombank Equitisation Steering Board has already decided on a list of four potential consultancy organizations namely Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and UBS and approved the equitisation consultancy selection document.

 

Vietcombank has sent documents to the potential consultancy firms so that they can supply consultancy draft offers to the bank whereby these firms will introduce services and consultancy charges.

 

Based on the aforementioned consultancy service and charge offers, Vietcombank will assess the capacity, quality, and charges of the consultants and report them to the SBV and the Ministry of Finance for consideration. The two state bodies will make the final decision of choosing one consultancy firm.

 

As scheduled, Vietcombank’s restructuring will undergo three steps, that is, building privatization plans, selling stakes and completing the conversion of Vietcombank into a shareholding bank.

 

The whole process is expected to last 18 months.

 

Recently, Vietcombank has planned an IPO in Hong Kong and Singapore in addition to listing shares in the domestic stock market. Accordingly, this will be the first listing of a Vietnamese firm in an overseas market so far

 

The IPO consultation will take around 10 months, according to Vu Viet Ngoan, general director for Vietcombank.

 

By the end of 2005, Vietcombank had total assets of US$8.3 billion, up from US$7.6 billion in 2004. Non-performing loans at the bank account for 4-8 per cent of the total.

 

In another development, the Mekong Housing Development Bank (MHB) also sets to submit its equitisation plan to the Prime Minister for approval in October.

 

Like Vietcombank, MHB is settling financial matters and selecting consultants for its share sales roadmap.