Shareholders of the Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) disagreed with the bank’s decision to transfer its listing to the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) under new code SCM.

After collecting shareholders’ opinions on the amendments, Sacombank on Wednesday released the result, which showed 83.36 per cent of the bank’s shareholders disagreed with the change.

Previously, in October, Sacombank, which is currently listed on the HCM Stock Exchange as STB, sought shareholders’ approval to transfer its listing to the HNX under new code SCM.

According to the proposal, Sacombank will cancel its registration of STB at the Viet Nam Securities Depository Centre (VSD), delist from the southern bourse, re-register SCM at VSD and finally list SCM on HNX.

This came as a surprise to investors because the code STB has been associated with Sacombank for the past 11 years.

Sacombank was the first bank to launch its IPO at the initial price of VND200,000 (US$8.8) per share in 1996 and also the first to list on the national bourse in July 2006.

In 2012, STB was included on the VN30, which consists of the largest stocks by market capitalisation. However, in 2015-16, Sacombank struggled with a huge stockpile of bad debts.

Duong Cong Minh, who became chairman of Sacombank on June 30, 2017, has been speeding up efforts to resolve bad debts. In the first nine months of this year, Sacombank announced it handled bad debts worth VND2 trillion and posted pre-tax profit of more than VND1 trillion, doubling its VND585 billion target for the full year.

STB shares yesterday closed at VND13,200, up against VND12,600 in the previous session. — VNS