Nam A Bank is taking the final steps to list more than 335 million shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) this year after three years of delay.

The bank announced it would close the list of existing shareholders on October 24 to prepare for the listing, so shareholders who want to transfer shares or make changes in personal information must do it before 4pm on October 22. After then, the bank will suspend the activities until the day of the listing.

Nam A Bank currently has charter capital of more than VND3.35 trillion (US$143.2 million) and the bank plans to raise the capital to VND5 trillion in 2018.

According to Tran Ngoc Tam, general director of Nam A Bank, the bank posted pre-tax profit of VND335 billion in the first half of this year, three times more than the same period last year. This helped Nam A Bank become the first lender in the banking system to exceed its target for the full year after just six months.

Besides Nam A Bank, some other banks are also racing against the clock to list shares this year.

OCB plans to list shares on the HCM Stock Exchange (HoSE) in 2018, as the bank’s chairman Trinh Van Tuan re-affirmed at the shareholders’ meeting in late March.

ABBank also plans to list shares on UPCoM this year before moving to HoSE in 2020.

Meanwhile, other banks are still silent or have delayed listing plans indefinitely.

According to analysts, some banks are proceeding slowly with their listing plans as to list shares, banks have to satisfy a lot of strict requirements, including on information exposure. Many banks have difficulties in corporate governance and cannot satisfy the requirements.

Banks also need to choose the right time when the stock market is positive to list shares, giving their shares high liquidity.

Sixteen banks have so far listed shares on the bourse, nine of which listed shares on HoSE, three at the Ha Noi Stock Exchange and four on UPCoM. — VNS