Maritime Bank plans to offload VND500 billion in non-performing loans to the VAMC. — Photo dddn.com.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) will sign contracts this week to purchase more than VND1 trillion (US$47.6 million) in bad debts from Maritime Bank, Techcombank and Global Petro Bank (GPbank).

The new deal raises the total number of banks offloading bad debts to nine, including Agribank, Vietnam Construction Bank, Phuong Nam Bank, Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), Saigon Hanoi Bank (SHB) and Petrolimex Group Commercial Joint Stock Bank (PGBank).

It's reported that Techcombank plans to sell VND93 billion in bad debts, with GPbank to rid VND498 billion and Maritime Bank to offload VND500 billion in non-performing loans to the VAMC.

Permanent Deputy Chairman of VAMC's Member Council, Nguyen Quoc Hung, said the company had bought nearly VND8 trillion ($380.9 million) of bad loans, with 67 per cent of non-performing loans tied to real estate and 22 per cent to production.

The sale is unrelated to the State-owned Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group, which was found to be more than VND86.7 trillion (US$4.1 billion) in debt in 2009, said Hung, adding that there were 13 credit institutions waiting to clear bad debts from their balance sheets.

The VAMC has issued VND3.86 trillion ($183.8 million) in zero-interest, five-year bonds to GPBank, SHB, SouthernBank, SCB and Agribank to shore up the nation's banking sector.

The VAMC estimates it will buy around VND10 trillion of bad debts by the end of this month. — VNS