HDBank buys French partner
HDBank buys French partner
HCM City Development Bank (HDBank) announced on Wednesday that it has got approval from the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) to acquire Societe General Viet Finance (SGVF).
The bank said that the wholly French owned company -one of the largest foreign owned consumer finance companies in Viet Nam - will become a subsidiary.
It expects that being the first transaction of this kind in Viet Nam, this will encourage other institutions to carry out further acquisitions, in line with the nation's restructuring plans for the banking system.
"The acquisition is in accordance with international trends and restructuring plans advocated by the Government and SBV," said the bank's Deputy General Director Le Thanh Trung.
The combination of a stably developing bank and a well invested international financial institution will help to bring customers convenient and safe products and services, he said.
The whole SGVF network, including employees, business partners and customers, will also be kept intact after the acquisition, he added.
SGVF, owned by France's Sociate General Co, was first licenced by SBV in 2007 to operate in Viet Nam. It is present in 42 provinces with roughly 1,100 employees and provides services to more than 125,000 individual customers, through 300 partners, across the country.
Merger talks
Dai A Bank will organise an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders next month to discuss its potential merger with HDBank, according to the Viet Nam Securities Depository.
If the merger is agreed, all charter will be passed to the new bank.
Sources said that at this point of time, all issues related to the merger of the two lenders had been finalised and the deal could proceed immediately.
Everything now hangs on the September 25 meeting when the shareholders will gather in the southern province of Dong Nai.
Rumours about the merger first leaked to the market in October last year, but HDBank denied the information. However, they finally admitted their involvement after a number of shareholders raised questions.
Their intentions became clearer when two of their officials took the highest positions of chairman and general director at Dai A Bank in June.
During a HDBank meeting on April 25, a bank representative said its goal was to buy a finance company and merge with another lender to become one of the top banks in Viet Nam by 2015.
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