Viet Nam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) is expected to start trading on the HCM Stock Exchange in the third quarter of 2017.

This information was revealed at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting on Monday.

VPBank’s shareholders in late 2016 approved of the bank’s share listing on the HCM City’s bourse.

VPBank had worked with the Vietnam Securities Depository on the procedures, however, it could take some time to complete all administrative procedures, said VPBank’s chairman Ngo Chi Dung, adding that the bank had contracted with a securities company on its share listing.

Dung also said VPBank had been negotiating with potential foreign buyers to sell 49 per cent of its stake in financial arm FE Credit.

The deal was aimed at increasing capital for the bank and improving the quality of corporate governance for FE Credit, he said. The details of the deal were not disclosed at the meeting.

Capital to increase to $622 million in 2017

VPBank plans to issue nearly 329.4 million shares to raise its chartered capital to over VND14 trillion (US$622 million) in 2017 from the current level of VND10.76 trillion.

The increase of chartered capital will ensure its business activities are well funded and the bank meets requirements on different ratios.

After raising capital, VPBank will issue a maximum of 133.2 million shares, or 10 per cent of the total common shares, to less than 100 investors under private placements.

Share price will be negotiated with each investor and will not be lower than the share’s book value.

The shares will be issued in 2017 and will be unavailable for trading for one year from the issuance date.

Currently, VPBank is among 10 largest joint stock commercial banks by chartered capital. A successful capital increase this year will bring VPBank to the fourth position after Sacombank, MBBank and SCB.

In 2017, VPBank has targeted pre-tax profit of VND6.8 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 38 per cent from 2016’s figure, and total assets of VND280.6 trillion. Last year, it recorded pre-tax profit of VND4.92 trillion, an increase of 59 per cent from 2015.

The bank also plans to pay dividend in shares for 2016’s performance to increase mid and long-term capital, meet Basel II requirements, improve the bank’s risk management system and meet requirements of international finance institutions and the central bank. — VNS