The Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank VCB) held its Annual general Meeting (AGM) on April 26th. In the discussion of shareholders with the bank’s leaders, shareholders questioned about the bank’s divestments in Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBBank, stock code: MBB) and Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank, stock code: EIB).
Vietcombank’s general director Pham Quang Dung said that the divestment of the bank in credit institutions in 2018 helped it earned more than 1.6 trillion dong of profit and made a fairly large contribution to the bank’s overall profit in 2018.
Vietcombank currently still has some big investments in MB and Eximbank at about 4.5 percent at each unit. In addition, the investment in Vietnam Airlines is also a large one. Based on market valuation by April 26th, Vietcombank’s profit is about two trillion dong.
However, Dung said that based on the business activities in 2019, the bank will set out the most effective divestment plan, adding that the bank is not under a divestment pressure because it has satisfied all requirements regarding ownership.
Previously, in 2018, Vietcombank sold part of its holding to reduce the ownership rate below five percent at MB and Eximbank as required by Circular 36 and sold all of its holding at Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Industry and Trade (Saigonbank). As estimated by securities companies, the divestments in MB and Eximbank alone brought about a profit of up to 1.6 trillion dong, not to mention the earnings in Saigonbank.
