Banks struggle to scale up charter capital

Banks, especially small-sized ones, are bidding to attract more equity funds to ensure they can survive the stiffer competition in the marketplace.

The Nam Viet Commercial Joint-Stock Bank, or Navibank, will double its charter capital to VND1tril (US$62.5mil) soon as it has already got the go-ahead from the central bank. Its target for the end of this year, however, is VND1.5tril.

Navibank will channel the new funds to its branches and offices given its plans to expand its network to 70 transaction locations by the year-end from the current 40.

Like Navibank, the Vietnam Bank for Private Enterprises, or VPBank, has almost fulfilled necessary procedures to double its charter capital to VND1.5tril. Still, it is looking to VND2tril in all this year.

VPBank will then pump more money into its securities arm to lift the broker's capital to VND300bil from the current VND50bil.

Smaller in scale the Gia Dinh Bank has registered its new capital at VND320bil-plus, up from the previous VND210bil.

Last month, the central bank's HCMC branch allowed three other lenders to double their charter capital, so the new figure at the An Binh Bank is VND2.3tril, the Viet A Bank VND1.125tril and the HCMC Housing Development Bank VND1tril.

The Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) is now Vietnam's largest join-stock lender with VND2.53tril in charter capital, followed by the Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (Sacombank) with VND2.34tril.

However, Sacombank will overtake ACB soon as it is finalizing the paperwork to register its new capital at VND4.45tril, although ACB has plans to reach VND2.63tril by the year-end.

Source: VNE

VPBank to sell 75 million shares

VPBank has been given the nod to sell 75 million shares to the public from June 22 to July 18.

The bank expects to double its chartered capital to 1.5 trillion VND (93.7 million USD) through the offering. It has been allowed to raise its chartered capital to 2 trillion VND (125 million USD) this year.

By the end of June, VP Bank’s asset value is expected to surpass 12 trillion VND (750 million USD) and its pre-tax profit is to reach 140 billion VND (8.7 million USD).

In the first quarter of the year, VPBank was listed by the Navigos Group and AC Nielsen of the US as one of the two Vietnamese banks among the top 50 businesses in the country in terms of working environment and personnel management.

It was regarded by the State Bank of Viet Nam to be one of the best banks among all commercial joint stock banks in northern Viet Nam.

Source: VNA