French bank BNP Paribas will increase its stake in Vietnam ’s Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank from 15 to 20 percent next year, under a memorandum of understanding signed last week.

The French bank became Orient’s strategic shareholder in 2007 with a stake of 10 percent, which was raised to 15 percent through an acquisition in August.

Orient said its pre-tax profits reached 252 billion VND (13.6 million USD) at the end of October, representing 99 percent of the year’s target.

Ten-month outstanding loans hit 9.53 trillion VND (515 million USD), about 89 percent of the year’s plan.
Orient has sought approval for a share issue to raise its charter capital from 1.47 trillion VND (79.46 million USD) to 2 trillion VND (108.11 million USD) and to issue 600 billion VND (32.4 million USD) worth of convertible bonds, both before the end of the year.

Orient is scheduled to raise its charter capital to 3 trillion VND (168.5 million USD) by next year.

BNP Paribas is one of the leading European groups in the financial and banking sector and ranks among the top 15 largest banks in the world in terms of scale and capital. It has members in Orient’s directorate and management board./.