VietNamNet Bridge - Some private economic groups have shown their intention to join the bank restructuring process by injecting money into banks which are undergoing restructuring.

Local newspapers in early August reported that Kinh Do, a sweets manufacturer, planned to pour VND1 trillion into Dong A Bank. 

Some days later, the information was corrected by a newspaper which said Kinh Do gave up the plan because of the financial problems the bank was facing. Meanwhile, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has announced that Dong A Bank has been put under the State Bank’s special control due to serious problems.

Though the deal has failed, analysts said, this indicates Kinh Do’s ambition to invest in the banking sector. 

Kinh Do was first established as a sweets manufacturer, but it has sold the sweets manufacturing division to a foreign investor and is now considering opportunities to invest in other business fields.

In February 2007, Kinh Do once tried to join the banking sector when signing a cooperation agreement under which it tapped $90 million into Eximbank to become a strategic partner of the bank.

However, three years later, Kinh Do quit Eximbank and tried a deal with Dong A. This shows that Kinh Do could see great opportunities in the banking sector even 20 years ago.

Analysts said now is the right time, when banks are undergoing restructuring, for Kinh Do and other private economic groups to invest in the business field. The money from the private economic sector would be very useful, especially in the context of the economy’s scant capital.

However, they also warned that private economic groups may fail when injecting money into the banking sector. A lot of powerful conglomerates failed with their investments in banks.

TrustBank is a typical example. It was one of -nine commercial banks with high bad debt ratios which were forced to be restructured by the State Bank. 

TrustBank was then taken over by Thien Thanh Group and a group of big shareholders, who changed TrustBank into the Vietnam Construction Bank (VNCB).

However, the big shareholders could not develop the VNCB brand. The bank had gone downhill and fallen into a difficult situation before it was bought by the State Bank at zero dong.

Investors believe that Nam A Bank and a group of big shareholders are likely to take over Eximbank.

To date, SBV still has not approved Eximbank’s high ranking personnel for the 2015-2020 period. 

However, there are signs showing that Nam A Bank is attempting to hold  control over Eximbank which met many difficulties in 2014 with the bad debt ratio on the rise, which required high provisioning against risk.

DNSG