Vietnam International Bank has been given permission to issue 60 million shares to existing stockholders to raise its charter capital to 3 trillion VND ( 157 million USD) from 2.4 trillion VND (126 million USD).

The individual face value of the shares will be 10,000 VND.

FPT Securities will act as consultant for the issuance, which will be traded from February 10.

The Hanoi-based bank on December 25 paid a 13.2 percent dividend for 2009.

In October, the bank announced that it planned to raise its charter capital to 4 trillion VND (210 million USD) by the end of the year. VIB did not explain why it had changed its plans.

Up until the end of the third quarter, VIB earned 496 billion VND ( 20.11 million USD) in pretax profit – twice that of the same period last year. It has also exceeded its revenue plan for the whole year.

Total deposits reached 44 trillion VND (2.3 billion USD), up 38 percent on the same period last year. Total outstanding loans were 25.5 trillion VND ( 1.3 billion USD), up 29 percent on the same period last year.

The bank’s bad debt ratio was under 1.5 percent./.