Brewery buys bank stake

Leading Vietnamese beer maker Sabeco has bought a 5% stake in Phuong Dong Commercial Bank, in which French bank BNP Paribas has agreed to invest, a bank official said on Tuesday.

The shares in the unlisted Ho Chi Minh City-based lender known as Oricombank were valued in the deal at face value of 31.5 billion VNDong (1.95mio US$), the official said.

"The deal was reached based on our mutual interest and future cooperation," he said without elaboration. Sabeco is the short name for state-run Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corporation.

Oricombank now has a registered capital of 567 billion VNDong, but the value of the deal with Sabeco took into account the bank's new capital of 630 billion VNDong that included the BNP Paribas investment, the bank official said.

Oricombank would be valued at 302mio US$ as its shares are traded at 77,500 VNDong (4.8 US$) on the unofficial markets. Oricombank has yet to say when it plans to list on the country's stock market.

BNP Paribas, the euro zone's second-biggest bank by market capitalisation, said in November it would buy a 10% stake in Oricombank.

The French bank did not disclose the value of the stake. It was expected to finalise the investment in Oricombank later this month or in February once central bank approval was in place, the Oricombank official said.

Major investors holding stakes of at least 10% in Oricombank now include two companies in Ho Chi Minh City, the Finance Management Committee of the Communist Party branch in Ho Chi Minh City and state-run Vietcombank.

Sabeco, the brewer of Saigon Beer and Beer 333, said in October it would double its beer output to 1 billion litres by 2010 when Vietnam's per capita beer consumption is forecast at 28 litres, up from 18 litres in 2006, state media have reported.

Sabeco's production capacity grew 16% in each of 2005 and 2006. It is expected to announce a partial privatisation plan soon under which the state would reduce its stake to 51% over the next few years.

Source: Reuters