VIB to acquire Ho Chi Minh City branch of Commonwealth Bank
VIB to acquire Ho Chi Minh City branch of Commonwealth Bank
Vietnam International Bank (VIB) has reached an agreement with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to acquire its Ho Chi Minh City branch, the local commercial lender announced without disclosing the value of the deal on Monday.
VIB will take over the CBA’s Ho Chi Minh City operations, with more than 22,000 individual and corporate customers affected, according to the agreement.
“We expect this process to take several months,” Shane O’Connor, general director of the CBA Ho Chi Minh City Branch, said in a statement.
“We will be contacting customers in the coming weeks to provide more information on what this means for them and the transition of their banking relationship to VIB.”
Neither VIB nor CBA has disclosed the value of the sale.
The CBA said in a separate announcement that the bank will “continue to service our existing customers until the transition to VIB is complete,” adding that its ATM and Internet banking services will remain operational until further notification.
The Australian bank currently holds a 20 percent stake in VIB and the holding will remain unchanged following the transition.
By selling the Ho Chi Minh City branch to VIB, CBA will no longer have to divide its resources and manage both banks at the same time.
The Australian lender can now boost its operations in the southern Vietnamese city through VIB, according to Steve Ellis, CBA’s general manager for India and Vietnam.
The Commonwealth Bank Group commenced banking in Vietnam in 1994 through a representative office in Hanoi, before opening the Ho Chi Minh City branch in 2008.
