BIDV, Vietnam's second-largest lender by assets, said on Tuesday it has set the starting price for its initial public offering at 18,500 dong ($0.88) a share, lower than those of several major listed banks.
The Hanoi-based lender, formally known as the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, is selling a 3 percent stake, or 84.75 million shares, after securing the government's approval.

BIDV will auction shares on Dec. 28 and will list on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange by the end of the third quarter ending September 2012. It also plans to sell a 15 percent stake to a foreign strategic investor next year.

BIDV's IPO is part of Vietnam's government drive to further restructure the state-owned business sector, a two-decade long process that had been slowed after the country's main stock market reached its peak in March 2007.

In late 2008, VietinBank, the country's largest partly private lender by assets, sold 53.6 million shares at an average of 20,265 dong, slightly higher than its starting price of 20,000 dong.

VietinBank shares closed up 2.02 percent on Tuesday at 20,200 dong, while shares in Vietcombank, the first state-owned lender to have been listed, lost 2.2 percent to end at 22,200 dong each.

Vietcombank sold its shares to the public at 107,860 dong in an IPO in late 2007, above the starting price of 100,000 dong.
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Reuters