Vietcombank will sell shares to foreign financial group

The Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) and Switzerland’s Credit Suisse yesterday signed the contract on equitisation consultancy services.
Under the contract, Credit Suisse will provide a package of services, including the solution to convert the bonds into shares, skills for corporate governance, bad debt management training, risk and asset management.

Speaking at the press conference held in Hanoi yesterday, Vu Viet Ngoan, Vietcombank’s Director General said that the bank has got the permission from the Government to choose a foreign strategic shareholder, to whom Vietcombank will sell 10% of its shares. The foreign strategic partner must be a world’s leading financial group, which is interested in Vietnam’s market.

Mr Ngoan said that under the consultancy of Credit Suisse, the IPO in the domestic market will be carried out in July 2007. The selection of strategic shareholder will be done in October 2007 and the IPO in the international market will be undertaken in 2008.
Mr Ngoan said that in the first phase of the equitisation, the state will remain the main shareholder with 70% of total capital. Only 10% of chartered capital will be available for every time of IPO. In the long term, the proportion of state owned shares in Vietcombank will decrease, but the state will still hold the controlling stake proportion of 51%.

In principle, Vietcombank may sell 20% of its stakes to foreign strategic shareholders at maximum, however, the deal must be approved by the Government.

Mr Ngoan has confirmed that Credit Suisse is the only financial consultant for Vietcombank in the equitisation process, and it will not become the strategic shareholder of Vietcombank.

On February 12, the world’s leading credit rating firm Standard & Poor’s announced it gave Vietcombank BB/B (stable outlook) in credit ranking. The rating given to Vietcombank is equivalent to the national credit rating. This is the highest ever credit rating given by Standard & Poor’s to a Vietnam-based financial institution.
Source: VNE