In the morning of June 30th, Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Industry and Trade (Saigonbank) held the 2020 Annual general Meeting.
At the meeting, the bank’s leaders reported the business results in 2019. Specifically, in 2019, the total assets of the bank were 22.440 trillion dong, up by 10 percent compared to the realised figure in 2018; mobilisation was 18.940 trillion dong, up by 14%; outstanding loans were 18.940 trillion dong, up by 10%; and bad debt ratio was controlled below three percent. The bank’s foreign payment reached 390 million US dollars, up by 10 percent compared to the realised figure in 2018. The bank attained a pre-tax profit of 175 billion dong, adjusted to 200 billion dong in 2019.
By the end of 2019, the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of Saigonbank was 18.39%, much higher than the provision of Circular 36 of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) which is nine percent. The ratio of short-term fund used for medium and long-term credit met the regulation, reaching 19.02%.
According to the leader board of Saigonbank, since the charter capital of the bank by the end of 2019 remained modest at 3.080 trillion dong and the operation of some units under the bank is still limited, the bank faces difficulties when competing with other commercial banks.
In 2020, the bank targets total assets of 22.968 trillion dong, mobilisation of 19.4 trillion dong, outstanding credit of 16.336 trillion dong, up by 8.5 percent compared to 2019, ensuring that it is in line with the monetary policy goals of the SBV. Its pre-tax profit goal was 130 billion dong.
Saigonbank will make the most of its advantages to access the state budget capital, exploit cheap capital to reduce capital mobilisation costs.
Regarding the settlement of outstanding debts, Saigonbank said that it would take strong and effective measures to basically handle bad debts, increase income for the bank; control bad debts in accordance with the SBV’s regulations. In addition, the bank will review all real estate assets it is managing, increase the lease of a part of unused business office in order to increase the bank’s income.
At the AGM, Chair of Saigonbank’s Board of directors Vu Quang Lam explained about not paying dividends this year. He said that the bank has available source of capital for paying dividends at four percent this year, but will submit competent authorities to pay dividends in early 2021. This year, competent authorities asked banks to retain the benefits to enhance financial capacity. “We commit that the bank will strive to achieve the profit target in 2020,” said Lam.
A shareholder of Saigonbank spoke at the meeting that Saigonbank has the advantage of owning high-value fixed assets, but it has not yet turned this advantage into profit, bringing benefits to shareholders.
Answering this problem, Lam said that Saigonbank has great assets. The profit from these assets in the long-term will benefits shareholders via the value of the stock. Lam gave an example that some big shareholders such as Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Industry and Trade of Vietnam (VietinBank) in 2019 sold Saigonbank’s shares at very high price which was double the face value.
At the AGM, representative of the State Securities Commission (SSC) said that the bank’s no dividend payment this year is because the SBV requires banks to increase risk provisions and not pay cash dividends this year. Large joint stock banks such as HCM City Development Commercial Joint Stock Bank (HDBank) and Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) also distribute dividends in shares. In addition, representative of the SSC also said that Saigonbank has submitted application for trading shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM).
