Orient Commercial Bank (OCB) has successfully issued shares worth more than VND900 billion (US$38.29 million) to increase charter capital.

According to the bank, 90.01 per cent of its existing shareholders bought 90.38 million shares at price of VND10,000 apiece among 100.4 million offered shares, equal to 20.5 per cent of the bank’s charter capital.

OCB said that the additional capital was to increase the bank’s financial status and meet the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of Basel II standards.

In addition, OCB issued 69.55 million shares to pay dividends in 2018, equal to 14.2 per cent of the bank’s charter capital.

After the two issues of nearly 160 million shares, OCB’s charter capital increased from VND5 trillion to nearly VND6.6 trillion.

The State Bank of Viet Nam has recently given approval for OCB to open five new branches and two new transaction offices, raising its network to 39 branches and 88 transaction offices nationwide.

OCB reported that its total assets by the end of June rose 7.7 per cent against early this year to VND90.83 trillion. The bank’s pre-tax profit in the first half of this year surged sharply by 2.6 times year-on-year to more than VND1.3 trillion, helping the bank meet 65 per cent of its annual profit target.

OCB plans to list on the HCM Stock Exchange in the second half of this year. After the listing, OCB’s market capitalisation is expected to reach $1 billion, according to OCB chairman Trinh Van Tuan. — VNS