A Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank trading office. The bank is planning to sell 100 million shares to domestic investors via a private deal to raise VNĐ1 trillion. Photo cafef.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MSB) is proposing shareholders approve a plan to raise VNĐ1 trillion (US$43 million) from private share issuance in the second half of this year.

The bank’s board of directors plans to issue 100 million shares or maximum 8.5 per cent of its charter capital for domestic shareholders.

The capital raised from share issuance, which is estimated at VNĐ1 trillion, will be spent on improving the bank’s financial capacity, expanding its office network, increasing market shares and business scale, diversifying products and services, and meeting the central bank’s capital adequacy ratio (CAR) requirements.

MSB also expects to increase its capital for medium- and long-term lending to raise its credit growth and make in-depth investment into infrastructure and technology.

MSB currently has VNĐ11.75 trillion worth of charter capital.

Any shareholder qualified for the deal must guarantee his ownership in MSB will not exceed 5 per cent of the bank’s charter capital and he will not become a major shareholder.

MSB major shareholders include the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), which holds 6.092 per cent of the bank’s charter capital.

After the share issuance, VNPT’s stake in the bank will fall to 5.614 per cent.

The selling price will be negotiated between the bank and shareholders. It will stay higher than the bank’s book value. Additional shares will be restricted from trading for a year.

The share issuance plan will be discussed at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting, which will be held on April 23.

Other topics at the annual shareholder meeting include a plan to sell 100 million treasury shares. — VNS