Hanoi-based Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), the largest lender by market value, plans to seek the government permission to ease cap on foreign ownership this year, the bank’s Chair Nghiem Xuan Thanh has said.
As of present, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) remains the largest shareholder of Vietcombank with a 77.11 percent stake. Foreign investors hold a combined 20.79 percent, with Japan’s Mizuho Bank being the largest foreign shareholder with a 15 percent stake.
On December 28, 2018, the SBV approved Vietcombank’s proposal to increase its charter capital to VND39.5 trillion (US$1.7 billion) by issuing shares to Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and Mizuho Bank.
Under the plan, GIC is expected to hold a 2.55 percent stake and Mizuho Bank the remaining so that the Japanese bank can maintain its stakeholding of 15 percent at the Vietnamese lender.
In 2018, Vietcombank recorded a record high pre-tax profit of VND18.01 trillion (US$781.77 million), up 63.5 percent against 2017 and the biggest in the local banking sector.
Thanh added that such high profit is even higher than the combined amount of the second and third largest banks in terms of earnings. The bank is also the largest contributor to the state budget among public companies.
The lender’s consolidated profit reached VND18.35 trillion (US$796.37 million), 38 percent above the plan and up 62 percent against 2017.
Vietcombank’s total outstanding loans stood at VND635.45 trillion (US$27.57 billion), up 14.9 percent against 2017 and below the quota set by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).
The bank has also mobilised nearly VND911 trillion (US$39.51 billion) in capital, up 13.7 percent year-on-year.
2018 marked the first year since its privatisation in 2017 with bad debt ratio below 1 percent or VND6.18 trillion (US$268.12 million). Additionally, the bank’s return on average asset (ROAA) and return on average equity (ROAE) were reported at 1.37 percent and 25.42 percent, respectively.
In 2019, Vietcombank targeted a 12 percent increase in asset value, 13 percent growth in capital mobilisation, 15 percent rise in outstanding loans and 12 percent increase in pre-tax profit, while keeping the bad debt ratio at below 1 percent.
