Viet Nam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) shares will list its shares on the HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE) on June 4.

This would make Techcombank the country’s seventh biggest firm by market value.

Techcombank CEO Nguyen Le Quoc Anh told the pre-listing conference held in Ha Noi on Wednesday that over 1.1 billion shares coded TCB will be traded on HOSE at a starting price of VND128,000 (US$5.62) per share.

The shares are allowed to move 20 per cent higher or lower than the reference price on the first day of listing.

At the price, the bank was valued at VND149 trillion ($6.5 billion), making it Viet Nam’s second-biggest listed bank after State-owned Vietcombank at VND192 trillion ($8.4 billion).

Techcombank’s capitalisation is even higher than that of the BIDV and Vietinbank, whose charter capital is three times higher in comparison.

Last month, Techcombank raised $922 million in one of the country’s biggest initial public offerings (IPO). Singapore wealth fund GIC, Fidelity Management and Research, and Dragon Capital are among the funds coming in as cornerstone investors.

Techcombank also planned to raise charter capital by three times from the current VND11 trillion ($481 million) to VND35 trillion ($1.5 billion) after its listing debut to better compete with not only local rivals but also regional ones. It would organise an abnormal shareholder meeting on June 14 to approve the charter capital listing.

It will issue more than 2.3 million common shares with par value of VND10,000 each ($0.4) to increase its charter capital.

“We plan to pay dividends to shareholders after six to eight weeks after listing on HOSE,” Anh said.

The CEO added that 2018 was a year of robust activity for Viet Nam’s stock market as the economy showed strong growth.

“We believe this is a suitable time to list Techcombank after nearly two years of preparation to bring the best profit to our shareholders,” he said.

He added that Techcombank has not yet decided to list shares on foreign stock markets.

The bank is now owned 22.5 per cent by foreign investors. Viet Nam limits foreign ownership in local banks to 30 per cent.

The lender also planned to invest $300 million over the next five years into its transformation of IT technologies to help it continue taking the lead in term of technology.Nguyen Xuan Minh, chairman of Techcombank Securities and Head of Techcombank’s Investment Banking Division, said Techcombank aimed to increase retail lending to 50-55 per cent of total loans, up from 40 per cent in the coming years while reducing the proportion of corporate loans.

“As the ASEAN Economic Community forms, our competitors are not only local banks but also regional ones from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. We target to be able to compete with the regional banks,” he said.

Last year, the bank’s total asset was VNDD269.3 trillion and integrated pre-tax profit was VND8 trillion, double than 2016. The return on equity (RoE) surged to 27.7 per cent — the highest level among banks in Viet Nam.

The 25-year-old bank provides a broad range of banking products and services to more than 5.4 million Vietnamese customers. It has an extensive network of 315 branches across the country. — VNS