HÀ NỘI — Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) will sell shares worth US$270 million to foreign strategic investors to increase its charter capital.

After getting approval from the State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) last month, Vietcombank also got the nod from the State Securities Commission last week to sell some 3 per cent of its charter capital to the Singaporean government’s investment fund GIC Private Limited (GIC) and Japan’s Mizuho Bank.

On December 12, SBV approved Vietcombank’s proposal to sell shares to GIC and Mizuho. Under the proposal, GIC is expected to hold 2.55 per cent of shares while Mizuho – which is Vietcombank’s largest current foreign investor – will buy the remaining shares to maintain its holding of 15 per cent at Vietcombank.

After completing the sale, the shares will not be transferable for one year.

With the sale, Vietcombank will complete the capital hike to meet a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of at least 8 per cent as per the SBV’s Basel II norms, starting in 2020.

After three years of restructuring, Vietcombank’s business performance took a leap in 2018. Its pre-tax profit hit a record high of VNĐ18 trillion (US$769.3 million) last year, up 60 per cent against 2017 and nearly triple that of 2015 – the year the bank started its restructuring.

The result far surpassed the bank’s target of VNĐ13 trillion set for 2018 at the annual general meeting of shareholders early last year.

The high profit was attributed to the bank’s success in promoting non-credit services, which accounted for more than 40 per cent of the bank’s total profit.

Besides high profits, last year also saw Vietcombank divest from Military Bank, Eximbank and Saigon Bank to meet SBV’s regulations on holding below 5 per cent ownership at other credit institutions.

Vietcombank shares (VCB) closed Monday morning trading at VNĐ55,200 apiece, up 1.2 per cent against last Friday. — VNS