Vietcombank sold out all 6.67 million shares of Orient Commercial Bank (OCB) at an auction on April 17 (Source: OCB)
Hanoi (VNA) - Vietcombank sold out all 6.67 million shares of the Orient Commercial Bank (OCB) at an auction on April 17.
According to the Hanoi Stock Exchange, 128 investors, including one institution, bought the shares. The highest winning price was 28,500 VND (1.25 USD) per share and the lowest was 25,000 VND, compared with the starting price of 13,000 VND set by Vietcombank.
The OCB price in this auction doubled that in the first auction held at the end of last year. On December 29 last year, Vietcombank auctioned 18.9 million OCB shares at a starting price of 13,000 VND; however, merely 13.2 million stakes found buyers, at prices ranging from 13,000 VND to 14,500 VND (59-65 US cents) per piece, leaving some 30 percent of the stakes unsold. After last year’s auction, Vietcombank’s ownership rate at OCB fell from 4.72 percent to 3.97 percent.
On the OTC market, OCB shares are also trading at around 25,000 VND to 27,000 VND per share, compared with some 10,000 VND at the end of last year.
With the success of the OCB share sale, Vietcombank currently holds 8.19 percent stake in Eximbank and 6.97 percent stake in Military Bank.
The northern bourse said OCB’s charter capital had reached 5 trillion VND, with more than 122 branches and transaction offices nationwide.
Last year, the bank earned 816 billion VND in after-tax profit, double the amount in 2016. Its total assets increased by 32 percent to 84.3 trillion VND. Meanwhile, lending surged by 25 percent to reach more than 48.1 trillion VND.
The bank this year has targeted to increase its total asset by 37 percent to 115.7 trillion VND, its charter capital to 7.5 trillion VND from the current 5 trillion VND and double its pre-tax profit to 2 trillion VND. It also planned to list on the HCM Stock Exchange in the fourth quarter this year.
Offloading holdings at OCB is one of Vietcombank’s moves to comply with the central bank’s Circular 36, which allows commercial banks to hold shares in a maximum of two other credit institutions, with the stake in each not exceeding 5 percent of the total equity of that institution.-VNA
VNA