Illustrative image. (Photo: cafef.vn)Hanoi (VNA) - Vietcombank (VCB) shareholders approved the bank’splan to issue an additional 360 million shares, equivalent to 10 percent of itscapital, to expand its charter capital to almost 39.6 trillion VND (1.74billion USD).
Theshares will be sold either to the public or offered to no more than 10investors (including existing shareholders) in a private placement in late2017 or next year.
Vietcombankplans to use about 3 trillion VND of the proceeds from the issuance to expandlending and other business activities, as well as fund possible mergers andacquisitions (M&As).
Atthe bank’s annual shareholders’ meeting on April 28, its chairman Nghiem XuanThanh said M&As would be a long-term strategy and should ensure thatVietcombank expands its network and accesses new markets.
Regardingthis criteria, Thanh said Vietcombank has not yet found suitable partners.
Vietcombankhas two major stakeholders, with the State Bank of Vietnam owns 77.11 percentand Mizuho Bank 15 percent. Mizuho is the only foreign strategic investor ofVietcombank.
Vietcombankis the most expensive bank on the stock exchange with a share price rangingaround 35,000 VND (1.54 USD) a share. It is also the biggest listed lender withmarket capitalisation at 126.3 trillion VND (5.6 billion USD) on April 28.
Vietcombank’sshareholders also approved the 2017 business targets, including increasingpre-tax profit by 8 percent year-on-year to 9.2 trillion VND and increasingtotal assets 11 percent to 874.6 trillion VND. Thedividend rate will remain at 8 percent this year.
Thebank aims to expand its credit outstanding by 15 percent to 547.1 trillion VND,total capitalisation up 14 percent to 684.8 trillion VND and keep the bad debtratio below 2 percent.
Inthe first quarter of this year, the bank reported pre-tax profits of nearly 2.65trillion VND, up 15 percent year-on-year. Last year, it earned pre-tax profitsof over 8.5 trillion VND, up 25 percent year-on-year. – VNA
