The
current alliance of Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB )- the Vietnam
Export-Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) and other related
individuals holds enough of a stake in Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock
Bank (Sacombank) to call for an irregular shareholder meeting to form a new
alliance.
A reliable source of Saigon Tiep Thi newspaper
said that though Sacombank’s board of shareholders has chosen the board of directors
and inspectors for the latest term, lasting until 2015, the ACB-Eximbank
alliance could still have the legal power to do so.
Some insiders told Saigon Tiep Thi that ACB
would transfer its current chief executive officer (CEO) Ly Xuan Hai to Sacombank
to hold the same position.
But Nguyen Thanh Toai, ACB deputy general
director cum spokesperson, told the newspaper that it is unlikely to happen.
The spokesperson for Eximbank, of which ACB is
a strategic partner, said he has no information about it, but added that he
would not be surprised if it happens.
A senior ACB officer told Saigon Tiep Thi the
same thing, and added that ACB is in the process of choosing a new CEO to
replace Ly Xuan Hai, who has held his post for 7 years.
Sacombank, which has a charter capital of
about 10.74 trillion dong ($515.1 million), doubled the price of its shares
when it started its initial public offering.
Dang Van Thanh, Sacombank chairman, his family
members and related individuals, hold a 23.12 percent stake of Sacombank ,
while Huynh Que Ha and her husband hold a 5.22 percent stake.
So, the current share of Sacombank owned by
its top leaders is 28.34 percent.
Thanh has told the press that as of August
2011, no one owned up to a 30 percent share of Sacombank.
Reportedly, there are unknown groups of
investors spending some trillions of dong to buy Sacombank shares when they
were recently traded at around 12,000-13,000 dong a share for the last 1.5
years.
But, Saigon Tiep Thi said it is possible for a
new alliance between ACB-Eximbank-Sacombank.
Some insiders told the newspaper that the
“unknown groups of investors” are all “acquaintances” of ACB and Eximbank
officers.
The stakes ACB has in Sacombank are still
unannounced, but late last year, Eximbank bought a 9.6 percent stake of the
latter to increase its stakes in Sacombank to 10.81 percent.
Eximbank general director, Truong Van Phuoc,
told Saigon Tiep Thi late last year that the bank is financially and manageably
capable of making good use of the acquisition.
As a leading commercial bank, Eximbank knows
very clearly the pros and cons of Sacombank and thus, will join the management
board to build a long-term strategic development scheme for the bank, he said.
Eximbank’s pretax profit in 2011 was 3.9
trillion dong, up 11 percent over initially predicted. Sacombank’s total assets
are equal to that of ACB, but in 2009, the return on equity of the former was
15.8 percent, while that of the latter was 21.78 percent. The equivalent rates
in 2010 were 16.74 percent and 20.5 percent.
The pretax profits of Sacombank and Eximbank
in 2009 were 2.175 trillion dong and 2.838 trillion dong, rising to 2.56
trillion dong and 3.1 trillion dong in 2010 respectively. The projected profits
for 2011 are 2.73 trillion dong and 4.1 trillion dong.
M&A
in banking industry expected to boom
Some five to eight Vietnamese banks will merge
in the first quarter of 2012 as the State Bank of Vietnam pursues further
restructuring of the banking sector, central bank Governor Nguyen Van Binh said
on January 11.
"I think in the first quarter of 2012
there will be about five to eight banks that will be merged," Binh told an
economic conference then.
Merger and acquisition (M&A) in Vietnam's
banking industry is expected to boom between now until 2015, providing a golden
opportunity for foreign banks to gain market shares in Vietnam, according to
The ASEAN Banker Forum 2011 held in Hanoi in December 2011.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) was developing
detailed plans for reducing weak banks at the lowest cost, said SBV Governor
Nguyen Van Binh at the Consultative Group of donors for Vietnam early December.
This showed that the SBV is very supportive of
M&A, or consolidation of banks.
Many economists forecast that, after the first
merger of three banks, Saigon Commercial Bank, TinNghia Bank, and Ficombank,
into a new bank (still bearing the name Saigon Commercial Bank), M&A
activities in the banking sector will be extremely exciting from now until
2015.
This is an opportunity not only for local
banks, but also for other foreign banks.
Tuoi Tre
Business & Investment Opportunities
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