Habubank shareholders have approved a plan to issue 960 billion VND (45.71 million USD) in convertible bonds next year to raise the bank's charter capital to 5 trillion VND (238.1 million USD).

This year, the Hanoi-based bank plans to spend 1.05 trillion VND (50 million USD) from a convertible bond issuance in August last year to increase charter capital to 4.05 trillion VND (192.86 million USD) from 3 trillion VND (142.86 million USD). The additional charter capital will be spent on improving infrastructure and business activities.

The Hanoi Stock Exchange-listed bank (coded HBB) targets a pre-tax profit of 700-750 billion VND (33.33-35.71 million USD) this year. Its shares closed flat yesterday at 9,900 VND.

The bank also plans to equitise in-house securities firm Habubank Securities, pending legal approval.

Habubank posted its 2010 fiscal report earlier this month, with a net profit of 746.7 billion VND (35.55 million USD), up 13 percent against the previous year. The bank's service arm posted a profit of over 114 billion VND (5.43 million USD) while its forex business posted a loss of 15.85 billion VND (754,761 USD).

Securities services earned only 2.4 billion VND (114,285 USD), falling over 84 percent year on year while securities investment earned over 221 billion VND (10.52 million USD) profit, a four fold increase against the previous year.

The bank's earnings from other operations hit 243.8 billion VND (11.61 million USD), seven times higher than in 2009./.