VietNamNet Bridge – State owned economic groups have been requested
to withdraw all their investment capital from banks. However, this turns out to
be a very difficult task.
The “PetroVietnam question”
Of the three shareholders who
have to withdraw capital from Ocean Bank, PetroVietnam is a special
shareholder, because it has been well-known as the state owned enterprise which
injected big sums of capital in the finance and banking sector.
Ocean Bank is not the only bank
that PetroVietnam invested in. The national oil and gas conglomerate now holds
20 percent of Ocean Bank’s stakes, 78 percent of stakes in PVFC and contributes
capital to GP Bank as well.
The noteworthy thing is that all
the three commercial banks where PetroVietnam invests in, are subject to the
restructuring or have big changes in the ownership structure.
Phung Dinh Thuc, President of
PetroVietnam, at the press conference on October 8, stated that PetroVietnam
would withdraw all of its capital from Ocean Bank by 2015. It also plans to
reduce the ownership ratio to 20 percent in PVFC by that time. However, the
capital withdrawal from PVFC would be carried out only if PVFC can convert into
a commercial bank.
As such, PetroVietnam would have
to withdraw a big amount of capital from the two credit institutions, while it
does not have much time to do that.
So, a question has been raised
for PetroVietnam: how it would withdraw capital, if it follows a principle that
it would only sell stakes when the market conditions are good in order to
preserve the state’s capital?
Meanwhile, the question raised
for OceanBank is who would replace PetroVietnam as the shareholder of the bank.
Ha Van Tham, President of Ocean
Bank, when answering Dau tu’s reporters, said PetroVietnam’s capital withdrawal
would not affect Ocean Bank, because the process would last until 2015, and
that Ocean Bank still does not intend to see another partner right now.
Analysts have doubts about if the
capital withdrawal by PetroVietnam would be carried out in a transparent way.
In case of GP Bank, after
PetroVietnam and GP Bank signed the agreement on capital contribution and
strategic cooperation in 2006, the bank stated that PetroVietnam contributes 20
percent of the total chartered capital of GP Bank.
However, the 2010 annual report
of GP Bank said that the biggest shareholder of the bank at that moment was the
FPT investment fund management company, which then held 5.84 percent of stakes.
As such, it’s unclear how
PetroVietnam withdrew its capital in the last few years, and how high its
current ownership ratio in GP Bank.
The thorny path
A lot of state owned economic
groups are still holding big proportions of stakes in commercial banks, though
they were told to quit the banks two years ago already.
Vinatex, a textile and garment
group, is still a shareholder of Nam Viet Bank, while Vinacomin (coal group)
and VRG (rubber group) are the shareholders of SHB. EVN, the powerful
electricity group, is a shareholder of An Binh Bank, and Bao Viet Group, a
finance group, owns Bao Viet Bank. The telecom giant VNPT has poured money into
Maritime Bank and Lien Viet Post Bank.
According to the National
Assembly’s Economics Committee, nearly 40 state owned and private enterprises
are holding 5 percent of stakes in joint stock banks, while they are also the
owners of finance investment companies. The complicated ownership model has
harmed the banking sector.
VInacomin planned to complete the
capital withdrawal from insurance, securities sectors and from the BIDV
expressway development company within 2012, while it would leave the finance
and banking sector and other business fields in 2013-2014.
However, the withdrawal from
SHB-Vinacomin insurance company has not been completed since the share auction
could only attract one investor.
Compiled by Thu Uyen
Business & Investment Opportunities
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