The Viet Nam Commercial Bank of Industry and Trade (VietinBank) has asked its shareholders for their views on the 2015 dividend payout by cash.

Under a bank resolution of the management board of managers No. 641/NQ-HĐQT-NHCT44, issued on December 1, the deadline for the registration date is December 15 this year.

Currently, the state holds 64.46 per cent of Vietinbank’s charter capital.

Previously, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) released an official document in June requesting the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) to direct the representative of state capital in Vietinbank and the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) to vote for the 2015 dividend payout to be in cash.

BIDV is set to payout 2015’s dividend in cash at a rate of 8.5 per cent per share, as confirmed at an extraordinary shareholders meeting in October, which means the state will receive VND2.7 trillion (US$120 million) in dividends as the SBV currently holds 95.28 per cent of BIDV’s charter capital.

Meanwhile, VietinBank has made no indication to MoF on paying a dividend.

Under a plan submitted to VietinBank’s annual general meeting in April, there was to be no dividend payout for 2015. Its chairman was quoted as saying that “this is a necessary decision and has strategic meaning for the bank in improving its financial capability and ensuring its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and continued development.”

Besides wanting to use all the profits from 2015 for the bank’s development, VietinBank also proposed the government consider lifting the foreign ownership limit, in which the state would hold less than 50 per cent of charter capital. VietinBank said this would ensure the ownership and control of the state in the bank while also creating conditions to attract more resources.

In the first nine months this year, VietinBank recorded strong growth, with after-tax profit reaching VND5.19 trillion, up 16.4 per cent year-on-year.

The bank’s total assets stood at VND900 trillion as at September 30, up 15.5 per cent compared with the start of the year. Customer loans and deposits, coincidentally, both reached VND625 billion, up 16 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, year-on-year.

Its bad debt ratio was down slightly to 0.85 per cent in the quarter against 0.92 per cent at the start of the year. — VNS