SeABank shares immediately rose to the ceiling at VND20,150 per share.

With the reference price of over VND20,000 per share, SeABank's market capitalization is nearly VND24.2 trillion (over $1 billion), equal to the current capitalization of BAB, and lower than that of MSB and EIB.

SeABank shares were listed at the time the prices for banking shares continuously increase and broke the peak in recent days when the VN-Index surpassed 1,200 points.

In the past few years, SeABank under the leadership of the daughter of real estate tycoon Nguyen Thi Nga, chairman of the BRG Group, has made impressive business results with sharply increased profits and capital.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga

After 11 years in office, in early 2018, Nga was replaced by Mr. Le Van Tan as SeABank chair. She has stepped down to be SeABank's Standing Vice Chair. This is a change to meet the regulations of the amended Law on Credit Institutions, which were passed by the National Assembly and came into effect from January 15, 2018.

Accordingly, the Chair of the Board of Directors, the Chair of the Board of Members, the General Director of credit institutions cannot concurrently be the Chair of the Board of Directors, members of the Board of Directors, Chairman of the Board of Members, members of the Board of Members, company president, General Director, Deputy General Director or equivalent titles of other enterprises.

Nga gave up her position at SeABank to stay at the BRG. In addition to SeABank, she also participates in the Board of Directors/Board of Management at several companies in the BRG Group's "ecosystem" such as BRG Group, Intimex Vietnam, Theater Hotel Co., Ltd., Thang Loi Hotel, and the Hanoi Tourism Service Joint Stock Company.

Nga's daughter, Le Thu Thuy (born 1983), is now SeABank's General Director cum Vice Chair of the Board of Directors.

In late 2018, Nga’s husband - Le Huu Bau - bought nearly 16.7 million rights to buy SeABank shares which were issued to raise capital from Phu My Investment Company Limited, which is owned and chaired by Nga.

Phu My Investment Company Limited is the largest shareholder in SeABank with an ownership rate of nearly 6.57% (equivalent to 79.3 million shares). Thuy holds 2.9%.

Audited financial statements of 2020 show that SeABank earned pre-tax profit of VND1,729 billion, an increase of 24% compared to 2019, after-tax profit of VND1,360 billion, 26% higher than the previous year. Over the past four years, the bank's profit has increased 4.5 times, reaching a record high of VND1,729 billion in 2020. Its charter capital has also increased sharply, from VND5,465 billion at the end of 2018 to more than VND12,000 billion at the end of 2020.

In late 2019, SeABank completed its pre-maturity repurchase of all special bonds held by the Vietnam Assets Management Company (VAMC) and completely dealt with the bonds during the year.

Moody's has just announced that it will maintain SeABank's B1 credit rating. This is one of 15 banks that Moody's raised the prospect of ranking on March 18.

V. Ha

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