Techcombank to raise $309 million via dong bonds

Sunday, May 25, 2008
Technological & Commercial Joint-Stock Bank, 15% owned by HSBC Holdings Plc, has obtained the central bank’s approval to mobilize VND5 trillion (US$309 million) by bond sales this year.

“We will sell debt in Vietnam to local and foreign investors,’’ Nguyen Duc Vinh, chief executive of the bank, commonly known as Techcombank, said this week.

“However, the timing and the way we sell has yet to be decided.’’

Techcombank’s pretax profit more than doubled to VND219.2 billion ($13.5 million) in the first quarter this year, from VND108 billion ($6.6 million) last year, on increased lending and currency trading.

Earnings from outstanding loans were VND25.8 billion, 134% higher than a year ago, the Hanoi-based bank said last month.

Revenue in the three months ending March 31 jumped to VND1.17 trillion, from VND505 billion ($31.1 million) a year earlier.

Total assets doubled to more than VND46.2 trillion ($2.8 billion) as of March 31.

Techcombank, the country’s seventh largest by assets, also plans to sell bonds to the foreign markets, Vinh said. (CPV)