Mobifone to offload stakes in two banks

Mobifone will offload its holding of 38.95 million shares in SeABank and TPBank next month. — Photo Mobifone

State-owned mobile network operator Mobifone will offload its holding of 38.95 million shares in two joint stock commercial banks next month.

The Ha Noi Stock Exchange has announced that it will conduct two auctions of the shares of SeABank and TPBank held by Mobifone on February 7.

At 8.30am on that day, Mobifone will auction more than 33.4 million SeABank shares, equal to 6.11 per cent of the bank’s charter capital. With a starting price of VND9,600 (42 US cents) per share, if successfully auctioned, Mobifone will gain more than VND320 billion (US$14.1 million) and no longer be a shareholder of SeABank.

Mobifone is currently the third-largest shareholder in SeABank, after Societe Generale and Phu My Investment Co, which hold 19.52 per cent and 11.55 per cent of the bank’s charter capital, respectively.

At 10am on the same day, Mobifone will auction more than 5.55 million TPBank shares, or 1 per cent of the bank’s charter capital. At a starting price of VND12,800 (56 US cents) per share, Mobifone is expected to gain at least VND70 billion ($3.1 million) and cut its stake in the bank to 4.76 per cent.

The divestment from the two banks is in line with Mobifone’s policy of divesting investments from its non-core business lines.

This is the second round of Mobifone’s programme of capital withdrawal from TPBank and SeABank. In April last year, MobiFone failed to sell shares of SeABank as no bidders showed interest. It could sell just 61 per cent of the offering of more than 14.28 million TPBank shares. Industry insiders attributed the failure to tepid investor sentiments.

According to experts, the auctions of the shares will test the local stock market, which has jumped over 50 per cent in the past 12 months, supported by local and foreign inflows and the country’s stellar economic performance in 2017.

TPBank and SeABank shares are priced at some VND26,000 and VND14,000 each in the OTC market. Finish fund PN Elite Fund bought a 4.99 per cent stake of TPBank in December 2017 for nearly $40 million, valuing the bank’s shares at VND30,000 each. — VNS