Vietnamese banks expect to sell more shares to foreign investors in 2022

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - A number of Vietnamese banks plan to sell more shares to foreign investors in 2022 as part of set strategies.

Leaders of the Orient Commercial Bank (OCB) said the bank was negotiating with foreign partners to sell 10 percent of its charter capital, baodautu.vn reported. If the deal is successful, the bank will lift its the foreign ownership limit (FOL) to a maximum of 30 percent as regulated by the current regulation.

OCB's share price has had a positive growth for nearly a year since its listing on the HOSE on January 28, 2021. 

According to the Viet Dragon Securities Corporation, OCB’s private placement plan of 70 million shares, which is expected to be completed in early 2022, will be a catalyst for the bank’s stock price to increase in the short term.

Last year, Japan’s Aozora Bank acquired a 15 percent stake in OCB in a deal worth 139 million. This was the first M&A deal for Aozora in a foreign market since 2001 and made Aozora OCB’s largest shareholder.

The market is also awaiting for the stake sale deal of VPBank to foreign shareholders this year after VPBank announced it wanted to adjust the FOL from 15 percent to 17.5 percent and preparing to issue shares to foreign strategic shareholders.

At VPBank’s 2022 annual general meeting, the bank’s leaders said VPBank could sell both existing treasury shares and newly-issued shares to foreign partners.

VPBank’s leaders are expected to complete the share sale plan in the first quarter of 2022. If the issuance is successful, the bank's equity could reach a record of around 120 trillion VND.

In April, VPBank signed an agreement to sell a 49 percent stake in FE Credit to Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Finance Group (SMFG) in a transaction that values the non-bank lender at 2.8 billion USD.

Through this transaction, FE Credit is expected to receive support in capital resources, management capacity and experience in the consumer finance sector in Asia from SMBC Group, especially SMBCCF – a leading consumer finance company in the Japanese market.

The transaction will add a large amount of capital to VPBank, contributing to enhancing the bank's financial potential to capture new investment opportunities in the market.

Sacombank also said it will sell 32.5 percent shares to foreign investors after completing its restructuring in 2022.

However, Sacombank Chairman Dương Công Minh said the sale of shares to foreign partners must be approved by the Government and the Việt Nam Asset Management Company (VAMC) as the VAMC is keeping the shares./.