A PB Bank's employee talking to a customer at its office. Photo courtesy of PG Bank

HÀ NỘI — Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) just approved the resolution of the Board of Directors on a plan to disinvest in Petrolimex Group Commercial Joint Stock Bank (PG Bank).

According to the plan, the company will disinvest its capital in the form of a public auction through the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE). Petrolimex currently holds 120 million shares, equivalent to 40 per cent of PG Bank's shares.

The starting price for the disinvestment will take the highest price of the following two prices: the price determined by the organisation with the valuation function according to the asset method (VNĐ21,300 or US$0.91 per share) or the average reference price of 30 consecutive trading sessions of PGB shares on the UpCOM exchange before the approval date of the divestment plan.

At the temporary price of VNĐ21,300, the size of the disinvestment is at least over VNĐ2.5 trillion. 

PG Bank is one of the banks with the lowest charter capital in the system and has remained unchanged for many years at VNĐ3 trillion. In 2022, the bank also didn't plan to increase its charter capital, marking its 12th consecutive year of unchanging charter capital. It had paid dividends for ten straight years by last year. 

Previously, PG Bank planned to merge with VietinBank but the deal failed in 2018. After that, HDBank had a merger agreement with PG Bank, but the plan was also cancelled in 2021. 

In terms of business results, PG Bank's profit before tax in the fourth quarter was more than VNĐ119 billion, a 107 per cent increase over the same period of 2021. 

For the whole of 2022, the bank's profit before tax reached VNĐ 506 billion, up 54 per cent year-on-year and exceeding 24 per cent of its yearly plan. — VNS