Singaporean bank withdraw funds from VPBank

Singaporean bank withdraw funds from VPBank

VPBank has parted its only foreign strategic shareholder – Singaporean bank Oversea-Chinese (OCBC) after this partner sold all of its shares at VPBank (more than 85.8 million shares), equivalent to nearly 15 percent of the charter capital.

Oversea-Chinese Bank - Singapore's oldest bank, has transferred all of its over 85.8 million shares in Vietnam Prosperity Bank or VPBank. According to the notice sent to the State Securities Commission and VPBank, OCBC said it was no longer VPBank’s sharehold from November 22.

Before the transfer, OCBC owned 14.88 percent of shares and was the only foreign shareholder as well as the largest shareholder in the VPBank.

OCBC poured capital in VPBank for the first time in March 2006 when it bought 10 percent of shares at the price of approximately 4.5 times over the face value.

In August 2008, this bank continued to pour approximately $25.5 million to raise its stake to nearly 15 percent. There is still no information about the new owner of the shares that were transferred by OCBC.

Within a year, two major shareholders divested from VPBank. Before OCBC, in late December 2012, the Chau Tho Investment JSC sold all of its 86.5 million shares of VPBank. Before the sale, Chau Tho also held nearly 15 percent of stake and was the largest shareholder of VPBank.

In the past nine months, VPBank had an impressive credit growth rate of 28 percent, the highest in the banking sector. However, profit is not higher than the same period of last year since it has to build big risk provision fund for bad debts.

vietnamnet