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Vietcombank listing: third time lucky?
The joint-stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, the first public lender to equitize, will list its shares early this year.
Vietnam’s third largest bank, known as Vietcombank, filed a listing application at the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange Wednesday, according to a statement on the bourse’s website.
Vietcombank twice delayed its floatation even as the benchmark VNIndex nosedived last year.
First, on June 18, the bank put off its listing plan to end September citing the slump in the stock market before delaying it again, with Nguyen Van Phuong, chief administrator of the board of directors, saying the auditing process took longer than expected.
“We are ready for the floatation this time,” the Hanoi-based bank’s chairman Nguyen Hoa Binh told Thanh Nien Daily Thursday, adding that the listing date will be decided by the exchange.
He also said the bank had delayed listing because it needed time to prepare for it, not just because of the market’s fall.
The bank will float 112.2 million common shares, equivalent to 9.28 percent of its chartered capital of VND12.1 trillion (US$693 million), the exchange said.
According to exchange regulations, companies have to float their shares within 30 days of getting approval.
The government raised VND10.5 trillion ($572 million) in December 2007 by selling a 6.5 percent stake in Vietcombank.
The bank would pay an annualized dividend of 12 percent for seven months ending last December, Binh said in a statement.
Hoang Uy
thanhnien
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