The bank earned VND535 billion ($25.4 million) in before-tax profits last year, a decrease of 19.4 per cent over 2013 due to the economy's slow recovery. — Photo dantri

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Lien Viet Joint Stock Commercial Bank (LienVietPostBank) aims to increase its profit 75 per cent to VND936 billion (US$44.5 million) this year, Board of Directors Vice President Nguyen Duc Huong said at a shareholder meeting on Saturday.

The bank earned VND535 billion ($25.4 million) in before-tax profits last year, a decrease of 19.4 per cent over 2013 due to the economy's slow recovery. The development of new technology and networks caused the decrease, Huong said.

The bank also increased its allowance to cope with credit risks and improved its standards on categorising debt, despite keeping a low bad-debt rate of 1.23 per cent, he said.

The bank had always thought of individuals and organisations in rural areas as major customers, he said, and many of them needed preferential interest-rate policies. It allowed rural businesses to make up 40 per cent of total debts.

The bank didn't profit much from this sector, but its customer base was large and stable, and provided 85 per cent of the bank's total savings, he said. The bank also aimed to pay dividends at 8 per cent and keep its bad-debt rate below 3 per cent of total debts, he added.

This year the bank planned to raise its charter capital to VND9 trillion ($428.5 million) by selling 254 shares at VND10,000 per share, Huong said. It also wanted to raise its total assets to VND135 trillion ($6.4 billion), including VND115 trillion ($5.47 billion) raised from its customers, he said.

Last year LienVietPostBank failed to increase its charter capital from VND6.46 trillion ($307.6 million) to VND6.64 trillion ($316 million) by selling 18.7 million shares at a price of VND10,000 per share to the Vietnam Post (VNPost), Huong said.

The bank's total assets last year reached VND100 trillion ($4.76 billion), including a raise of VND77.8 trillion ($3.7 billion) from its custom ers which was an increase of 40 per cent, Huong reported. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) allowed LienVietPostBank to plan for a credit growth rate this year of 13 per cent. — VNS