Eximbank delays AGM amid losses
Eximbank delays AGM amid losses
Eximbank has postponed its annual general meeting to later this month and has reported a remarkable drop in profits for the first quarter of the year.
The Ho Chi Minh City-based bank could not hold its annual general meeting (AGM) as scheduled on April 29, as the number of shareholders registered to attend the meeting was below the Eximbank charter minimum requirement of 65 per cent of voting shares.
On the morning of the AGM, the total number of shareholders in attendance was 487, representing just 50 per cent of the total voting stakes.
According to the bank, in accordance with current regulations and the bank’s charter, its new AGM will be held within 30 days of April 29. The exact date and venue will be announced at a later date.
Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, which acquired some 15 per cent of Eximbank’s stakes back in 2007, is currently the bank’s largest shareholder. Other major shareholders include Vietcombank and VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF), holding 8.24 per cent and 4.99 per cent of the bank’s stakes, respectively.
Eximbank reported VND40 billion ($1.83 million) in net profit in 2015, a sheer drop of 88 per cent compared to 2014.
At the end of the first quarter in 2016, the bank’s total assets had fallen on-quarter by 2.1 per cent to VND122.22 trillion ($5.61 billion). Its accumulated losses, meanwhile, had reached VND793.5 billion ($36.39 million).
Eximbank’s operating expenses during the period rose roughly 40 per cent, totalling VND662 billion ($30.36 million). The bank’s net operating profit, as a result, settled at only VND368 billion ($16.88 million), a decrease of almost 32 per cent compared to the same quarter last year.
What’s more, Eximbank’s risk provisions in the first quarter soared to VND337 billion ($15.45 million), and thus ate up the lender’s profit. Its pre-tax profit and post-tax profit were recorded at VND30 billion ($1.37 million) and VND24 billion ($1.1 million) respectively, a remarkable drop of 94 per cent compared to the VND415 billion ($19.03 million) in post-tax profit recorded in the first quarter of 2015.
Eximbank explained that the drastic tapering in profits was a result of the lender’s provisions set aside quarterly for credit risk, and risk on special bonds issued by the Vietnam Asset Management Company, on an accumulation basis.
