The Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) plans to list its shares on Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) this year and sell over 158 million treasury shares to foreign investors, its Chairman Ho Hung Anh said at the firm’s annual shareholders’ meeting on March 3.
The bank plans to sell the treasury shares to foreign investors at a minimum price of VND 23,445 ($1.03) to raise at least $162.74 million from the sale. Its chairman said the bank will prioritise investors from the US and Europe for the share sale. The proceeds from the treasury share sale will be used to increase the bank’s assets, expand its network and credit operations, and for investments in government bonds.
Techcombank also plans to sell 14 million preferred shares from the treasury stock to its employees within the second quarter of this year.
The bank had planned to list its shares on HoSE last year but it felt the timing was not right, chairman Hung Anh said. “With the bank’s plan to sell shares to foreign investors and employees, 2018 is the right time to list on the stock market,” he emphasized.
The Vietnamese private bank’s pre-tax profit stood at VND8 trillion ($352 million) in 2017. The bank targets pre-tax profit of VND10 trillion ($440 million) this year, up 24 per cent compared to last year. Its total assets are expected to reach VND315.2 trillion ($13.8 billion), up 17 per cent year-on-year.
In June 2017, Techcombank proposed to repurchase shares from existing stakeholders and to keep those as treasury shares. As part of the plan, HSBC sold its entire 172 million shares to Techcombank at VND23,445 ($1.04) per share. The shares previously accounted for 19.4 per cent of Techcombank’s charter capital, and are currently priced at a total of VND4 trillion ($178.1 million).
With that sale, foreign ownership in the Techcombank is officially at zero per cent. Techcombank has expressed its intention to increase the level of foreign ownership but not higher than 30 per cent of its charter capital. State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) recently gave its nod for Hanoi-based Techcombank to sell its entire stake in its financial arm Techcom Finance to Lotte Card Company, which is part of South Korean chaebol Lotte Group.
While not disclosing the specific value of the deal, Techcombank’s chairman stressed that selling its financial arm will help aid the bank’s growth.
Source: dealstreetasia