VN’s 3rd banking merger deal gets nod
VN’s 3rd banking merger deal gets nod
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has given the green light for the merger of two unlisted commercial banks, DaiA Bank and Ho Chi Minh City Development Bank (HD Bank), the third banking merger and acquisition (M&A) deal so far in Vietnam.
The SBV branch in Ho Chi Minh City has received written approval from the central bank on the merger of the two banks, said To Duy Lam, the branch’s director.
With the recent official approval, the remaining problems will be settled by the two banks, he said.
"In my opinion, the merger should be considered normal, as the banking consolidation will create a new, better bank.”
“Currently, the two banks are faring well, and they are not in the group of nine banks that are required to merge with other banks in the national banking restructuring scheme of the Government and the central bank," said the chief of the SBV HCMC branch.
Previously, the two banks had planned to hold extraordinary shareholders’ meetings to discuss many issues, including content on banking restructuring. Information about the merger had also been spread publicly, but both banks did not officially give any comment or confirmation.
On October 26, Quach Van Duc, chairman of DaiA Bank’s board of directors, said that though there had been many domestic and foreign credit institutions suggesting that DaiA Bank joined the merger deal recently, the bank had yet to reach any decision on such a deal.
As the first joint-stock bank operating in the province of Dong Nai, DaiA Bank has chartered capital of VND 3.1trillion, with 64 transaction offices. Its major shareholders are Tin Nghia Corp, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, the Dong Nai Lottery Company and ACB.
ACB has two representatives on the board of DaiA Bank.
Initial information about the merger of DaiA Bank and HD Bank started to appear when the two banks announced that they were convening shareholders meetings on October 30 and October 31, respectively.
However, on October 26, DaiA Bank suddenly announced a postponement of the shareholders’ meeting while waiting for the release of the audited financial statements for the first 9 months in 2012 from an independent auditor, in order to be well prepared for the meeting.
The meeting was then re-scheduled for November.
Meanwhile, on the afternoon of the October 26, HDBank said it is looking at possibilities of cooperation with other credit institutions, but its board of directors denied any rumors on a possible merger deal in the near future.
Two previous deals were the merger of SCB, TinNghia Bank and Ficombank into a new SCB in late 2011 and the merger of Habubank into SHB in August this year.
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