VIB Bank forecasts profit rise, plans '08 listing

Friday, May 23, 2008
Viet Nam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB Bank), the country's eighth-largest lender, projected on Friday that its gross profit would jump 65% this year to 700 billion dong.

The Hanoi-based bank said in a statement it would issue new shares to raise its registered capital by 50% to 3 trillion dong, sell part of the issue to foreign investors and consider listing on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange this year.

The stock market has fallen 54% this year, closing down 1.54% at 428.05 points on Friday. The bearish trend has made many listed firms reluctant to go ahead with their new share issues planned this year.

VIB, worth $180 million based on its $0.9 share price it trades at on the unofficial, unregulated market, has also projected raising its assets by 32% to 52 trillion dong by the year-end.

All the targets have been approved by shareholders on Wednesday, the statement said. It did not name foreign candidates who would buy VIB shares.

Vietnam's central bank plans to keep the country's credit growth at 30% this year after loans jumped 54% last year. The economy expanded 8.5%.

VIB said its audited net profit more than doubled to 306.5 billion dong last year and total assets also soared to 39.32 trillion dong from 16.6 trillion dong in the previous year.

VIB's plan to sell a stake to foreign investors follows eight other partly private banks, half of them have each sold a 15% stake to a foreign bank in the past several years. The four others sold 10% each.

The government caps foreign ownership in a domestic bank at 30% and limits strategic investor ownership to 15%.

Now only Ho Chi Minh City-based Sacombank and Asia Commercial Bank among Viet Nam's 36 partly private banks have shares traded on the country's stock markets.

VIB was founded in early 1996 by a number of institutions, including state-run Agribank and Vietcombank, as well as private businessmen. Vietcombank, the country's third-largest lender, owns 2.45% of VIB.