OCBC approved to buy 5% more stake of VPBank

The governor of the State Bank of Vietnam on August 4 approved the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Private Enterprises' (VPBank) proposal to sell 5% more stake to its strategic shareholder, the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC), bringing the total stake owned by OCBC at VPBank to 15%, the central bank has announced on its website.

VPBank is one of the joint stock commercial banks which have large transaction networks in Vietnam. The bank currently has 140 branches and transaction offices throughout the country. VPBank's current charter capital is VND 2 trillion.

OCBC is VPBank's strategic partner and is holding a 10% stake of VPBank. Since March 2006, after becoming VPBank's strategic partner, the two banks have signed various agreements to concretise the co-operation strategy between the two sides.

OCBC has spent US$8.2 million on professional training courses for VPBank staff.

VPBank is aimed to become Vietnam's leading retail bank with advantages of OCBC's advanced technology and management model as well as VPBank's wide network and its position in the Vietnamese market.

ND

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