Vietcombank's charter capital rises to 37.1 trillion VND after selling shares to GIC and Mizuho. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The charter capital of the Joint Stock CommercialBank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) has risen by 3 percent to 37.1trillion VND (1.6 billion USD) after its recent sale of more shares to twostrategic investors - the Singaporean investment fund GIC Private Limited (GIC)and Japan’s Mizuho Bank.
Mizuho Bank had completed the purchase of more than 16.6 million shares toincrease its holding to 15 percent.
Meanwhile, GIC owned 2.55 percent of Vietcombank’s shares after buying over94.4 million shares.
The bank completed the first share sale toforeign investors after receiving approval from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)on December 27, 2018.
Despite the central bank’s tightened monetarypolicy, Vietcombank reported good business performance last year thanks toimproved bad debt resolution and rising income from services.
Vietcombank Chairman Nghiem Xuan Thanh said hisbank’s 2018 pre-tax profit hit a record high of 18 trillion VND (773 millionUSD), surging a whopping 63 percent against 2017 despite the central bank’scredit slowdown.
Vietcombank’s outstanding loans last year fell14.9 percent to more than 635 trillion VND, lower than the 17.2 percent rate of2017.
The impressive result was attributed to thebank’s success in controlling credit quality and boosting service segments.Vietcombank’s non-performing loans (NPLs) accounted for only 0.97 percent ofoutstanding loans by the end of 2018 – the lowest level among the local banks –while its retail credit proportion rose from 39.6 percent in 2017 to 46.2percent in 2018.
With the impressive results in 2018, the bankhas set a profit target of 20 trillion VND for 2019. It will continue effortsto remain as the leading bank in Vietnam as well as one of the top 100 banks inthe region and top 300 in the world.-VNA
VNA
