In 2019, dozens of banks set targets to list on the stock exchange. However, until December 17, there were only two weeks left to 2020, but a series of banks were still obscure.
In the project ‘Restructuring the securities market and the insurance market up to 2020 and orientations to 2025′ approved by the prime minister, it was mandatory to list and register stock transactions of joint-stock commercial banks towards the end of 2020. All commercial banks would be listed and registered for transactions on the official market.
Previously, at the Development Strategy of Vietnam’s Banking Sector to 2025, the orientation to 2030 approved by the prime minister in August 2018 also set the goal by 2020 to complete the listing of shares of all commercial banks on Vietnam stock exchange.
However, currently, only 18 out of over 30 banks put their stocks on the stock exchange. In which, 10 banks traded on Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HOSE) including Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank, code VCB), Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank, code CTG), Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV, code BID), Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBBank, code MBB), Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank, code EIB), Sai Gon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank, code STB), Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint-Stock Bank (Techcombank, code TCB), HCM City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank, code HDB), Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank, code TPB), Vietnam Prosperity Joint-Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank, code VPB). Three banks traded on Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) were Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB, code ACB), Saigon Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB, code SHB), National Citizen Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NCB, code NVB). Five banks traded on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) were Lien Viet Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank (LienVietPostBank, code LPB), Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB, code VIB), Vietnam Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Vietbank, code VBB), Bac A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Bac A Bank, code BAB), Kien Long Commercial JointStock Bank (Kienlongbank, code KLB). Thus, there were about 10 more banks to sprint to list on the stock market in 2020.
2019 recorded only one successful security listing case of Vietbank. At the end of July 2019, VietBank’s shares were officially traded on UPCoM with VBB code. The volume of securities registered to purchase was more than 419 million shares, equivalent to the charter capital of 4.19 trillion dong. The reference price in the first trading session was 15,000 dong per share, equal to a valuation of 6.285 trillion dong.
Besides, Vietnam Maritime JointStock Commercial Bank (MSB) bank had applied for listing on HOSE, but there was so far no new moves. This bank would likely have to complete this programme on Tet holiday in 2020. Accordingly, 1,175 billion shares of MSB will be listed, equivalent to the charter capital of 11.75 trillion dong. Besides, listing plan of MSB had lasted for nearly four years, since 2016, when the bank completed its merger with Mekong bank. The bank’s 2017 to 2019 Annual general Meeting (AGM) had all approved its plan to go public, but so far it had then officially been implemented.
Previously, in 2018, although dozens of banks planned to list shares on the stock exchange, only three successful banks were Techcombank, HDBank and TPBank.
More than 10 banks were remaining, the plan had been approved by the general Meeting of Shareholders but still waiting for the right time.
The Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) plan attracted attention in 2018 but had missed the appointment for two years. In 2018, Trinh Van Tuan, Chair of the Bank’s Board of directors also replied on Bloomberg on the expectation that the bank capitalisation would reach $1 billion after listing at the end of Q3/2018 or the beginning of Q4/2018. However, the market was not performing well, and this plan had to step back.
By 2019, OCB continued to reiterate that plan but the reality had yet to proceed. At the AGM of Shareholders, the bank’s leader said he wanted to list at the best time for the bank as well as shareholders. Accordingly, OCB aimed to find foreign investors to support growth and then go public.
Besides, several mid-range banks, such as Nam A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Nam A Bank), An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBank), and Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) had all planned to go to HOSE. At the beginning of the year, the shareholder of Nam A Bank approved the plan to bring all issued shares to HOSE and increase its charter capital to 5 trillion dong this year. However, up to the present time, the bank had not made any move to show that the listing was ready even though the business results of the months of 2019 were quite positive. In late September, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) approved for SeABank to increase its charter capital to 3.89 trillion dong.
ABBank expected that after paying a dividend of 7.4%, the bank would apply HOSE. Last July, the stock dividend payment was completed but there was no new information on ABBank’s listing procedure. SeABank, meanwhile, had set a more comfortable deadline, going to be listed from 2019 to 2020. The bank expected to list on HOSE instead of UPCoM as planned in 2018.
In the small banking group, typically Saigon Bank for Industry and Trade (Saigonbank) had also been approved by the shareholders on the UPCoM plan at the end of 2019 but currently had missed the project. Viet Capital Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Viet Capital Bank) had been granted a certificate of registration from Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) since September 16 with 317.1 million registered shares equivalent to 3.171 trillion dong of charter capital, with the BVB stock code, but so far not officially on the stock exchange yet.
These banks had missed appointments but also mentioned the listing roadmap. However, a few other banks, such as Sai Gon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), Vietnam Public Joint-stock Commercial Bank (PVcomBank), Vietnam Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Viet A Bank), and so on, had not mentioned security listing plan in 2019.
The slow listing came from many reasons, of which the reason given by banks was the gloomy market situation, which was not favourable. In fact, Techcombank and TPBank, right after listing on HOSE in mid-2018, so far had witnessed stock prices plummet, partly due to the market’s downturn.
In addition to the objective reasons above, there were internal issues at some banks, others wanted to find an appropriate partner before listing but had not reached an agreement. Besides, according to some experts, banks with financial information like low profitability, high bad debts, especially small banks, would find it challenging to attract investors, affecting the success of the stock exchange.
