An Binh Bank plans to become one of the leading commercial banks in Viet Nam by 2018.— Photo nhipcaudautu.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) plans to sell all its shares in An Binh Bank (ABB) on October 14, officials said.

An Binh Securities (ABS), which will consult for and conduct the auction, said the total 81,587,990 shares, of which EVN holds 76,856,018 and EVN Ha Noi holds 4,731,392, will be sold at the starting price of VND10,000 (US$0.45) each.

ABS said the registration and deposit period started on September 21 and will run until October 12. Payments can be made between October 15 and 21.

EVN used to be the largest shareholder of the bank, with more than 102 million shares, or 21.2 per cent. It sold 25.2 million shares to Geleximco in December 2013.

Now, Malaysian Maybank is its largest shareholder, with 20 per cent, EVN is the bank's second-largest shareholder, with 16.02 per cent.

Under the Government's plan to restructure EVN, the group, no later than the end of 2015, will make the divestment in the field of banking, finance and insurance, under a government directive to depart from non-core businesses.

Apart from ABB, the group will also divest from the Global Insurance Company and EVN Finance Company. It will also reduce its holding stakes in several mechanical firms to less than 50 per cent.

ABB has charter capital of VND4.8 trillion ($213.6 million). After the first half of the year, the bank held total assets of VND65.6 trillion ($2.91 billion), an increase of 10 per cent over the same period last year. It also reached a profit before tax of VND179 billion ($7.95 million), an increase of 15 per cent over the same period last year. The bad debt ratio of the bank was also kept under 3 per cent.

The bank plans to become one of the leading commercial banks in Viet Nam by 2018.

Currently, shares of the bank are being traded in the over-the-counter market. — VNS