|
BIDV posts 31 percent gain in profit on currency trading
Bank for Investment & Development of Vietnam (BIDV), the nation’s second-biggest lender, posted a 31 percent increase in profit last year because of currency trading.
Net income rose to VND2 trillion (US$113 million) from VND1.53 trillion ($86 million) in 2007, according to a statement Wednesday. The state-owned lender’s assets rose 21 percent to VND247 trillion ($13.9 billion), up from VND205 trillion ($11.5 billion) a year earlier.
“We earned a lot last year from trading foreign currencies due to the fluctuation of the dong,” said Hanoi-based Phan Thi Chinh, Deputy General Director of the bank.
The central bank last year expanded the band that dong is allowed to trade in and weakened the currency to support an economy that’s growing at the slowest pace in a decade. The dong weakened 8.5 percent last year.
Hanoi-based BIDV said income from foreign-exchange trading surged to almost VND791 billion ($44.4 million), from VND140 billion ($7.8 million) in 2007.
The government on December 30 allowed BIDV to delay its planned initial public offering to this year as the country’s stock market plunged. The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange’s VN-Index tumbled 66 percent last year.
thanhnien, bloomberg
|
