The listing plans of in 2020 some banks have been submitted to the shareholders’ meetings for approval, but their success must wait for suitable time.
The HCM City Stock Exchange has just received the registration document for share listing of Lien Viet Post Bank (LienVietPostBank, LPB). Specifically, the number of LPB shares registered for listing on the HoSE is 976,948,319 shares, equivalent to a charter capital of 9,769,483,190,000 dong.
The shift of listing from the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) to the HoSE is one of a major orientations approved at LienVietPostBank’s 2020 Annual general Meeting (AGM) held in late June 2020.
In parallel with the listing plan, this year LienVietPostBank also expects to increase charter capital to 10.746 trillion dong (from the current 9.769 trillion dong) and raise the ownership rate of foreign investors at the bank from five percent to a maximum of 9.99%.
Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) and Saigon Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) also plan to shift their listing from the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) to the HoSE to increase the liquidity of the stocks and also to prepare for the merger of the two exchanges HoSE HNX.
Chair of the Board of directors (BOD) of Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank Dang Khac Vy said that VIB expects to shift the listing on the HoSE in November 2020 from the UPCoM. At the same time, the bank has also proposed a plan to increase charter capital from 9.245 trillion dong to 11.094 trillion dong by issuing bonus shares at a ratio of 20%.
“After receiving approval from the shareholders meeting at the AGM on June 30th, VIB is conducting the issuance of bonus shares and preparing procedures to list its shares in November this year, said Vy.
The AGM of Nam A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NamABank) on June 27th proposed shareholders for approval of the pre-tax profit target of one trillion dong, the dividend payment rate of 14.65%, and the plan to list shares on the HoSE at the latest in December 2020.
Tran Ngoc Tam, general director of NamABank said that the listing aims to increase the stock liquidity, and ensure the roadmap to list shares on the stock exchange in 2020 as previously planned.
Tam added that in 2020, NamABank also plans to increase charter capital from 3.890 trillion dong to five trillion dong, expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2020. After that, the bank plans to increase charter capital to seven trillion dong through a share dividend distribution at 14.65 percent ratio (issuing 57 million shares, equivalent to 570 billion dong), and a private placement for shareholders of 143 million shares (equivalent to 1.430 trillion dong).
Answering questions of shareholders about the prolongation of the listing, Trinh Van Tuan, Chair of BOD of Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) said that the bank will soon carry out the listing plan after completing the sale of 15 percent stake to Aozora Bank to increase charter capital to over 11.275 trillion dong this year.
OCB’s orientation is to complete the capital to foreign strategic shareholder before listing shares on the stock market.
The end of 2017 and early 2018 is the golden opportunity to list, but at that tie OCB’s foreign strategic shareholder BNP Paribas fully sold over 74 million shares, equivalent to 18.68 percent of OCB’s charter capital after 10 years of investment.
After the divestment of BNP Paribas, on June 29th, OCB successfully issued shares to Aozora Bank (AOZ from Japan). This is considered a sufficient condition for OCB to list, but the more important issue considered by the bank’s OCB is whether the market developments and conditions are favourable for OCB to list on the HoSE, skipping the UPCoM.
In the scheme on “Restructuring the stock market and insurance market by 2020, with vision to 2025″ approved by the prime minister in late February 2019, there is a compulsory condition for banks to carry out listing.
Thus, if not listing shares on the official stock exchange, banks must trade their stocks on the UPCoM. For example, Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Industry and Trade (Saigonbank) said it is preparing the procedures to register its stocks for trading on the UPCoM.
On July 9th, Viet Capital Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VietCapitalBank) officially put its shares to trade on the UPCoM. Previously, Vietnam Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VietBank), Bac A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (BacABank), Kien Long Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Kienlongbank) had traded shares on this exchange.
However, some banks such as An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBank), Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank), etc. said that in the difficult situation this year, they did not submit to shareholders the listing plan.
Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MSB) at the AGM on May 22nd 2020 even submitted shareholders for approval on withdrawing the application file for listing shares on the HoSE, although the procedures for listing were completed.
General director of a bank said that banks really want to list but the plans will be difficult to be implemented if the market is not favourable.
The instability of the stock market from the beginning of the year until now due to Covid-19 and the risk of disease outbreak again in recent days has made many bank leaders worried.
A financial analyst said that banks can hardly complete the procedures to list shares on the stock exchange as year 2020 has only a quarter left, not to mention that the market is still under the risk of disease.
In fact, both VIB, OCB and LPB have had plans to shift the exchange floors from previous years, but due to unfavourable market, they have been unable to complete the plans. OCB’s Chair said that as planned, the bank wants to list as soon as possible, but if the market is not favourable and listing affects the interests of shareholders, it is more harm than good.
