Asia Commercial Bank to lend companies $2 bln with state support 

Asia Commercial Bank, Vietnam’s biggest publicly traded company by market value, plans to lend companies VND35 trillion (US$2 billion) at reduced rates after the government agreed to subsidize loans to revive borrowing.

The government said January 15 it will spend VND17 trillion to subsidize loans by 4 percent for companies involved in exports, imports and manufacturing.

State support means Asia Commercial can charge interest rates as low as 2 percent, chief executive officer Ly Xuan Hai said at a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday.

“We want to support the government and central bank’s stimulus program to boost the economy by making it possible for companies to borrow money at low costs to sustain or expand production,” Hai said.

Asia Commercial, partly owned by Standard Chartered Plc, aims to increase lending by 70 percent this year after growth stagnated in 2008, Pham Trung Cang, head of the lender’s credit committee, said in a phone interview Thursday.

Bloomberg

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