The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) approved the registration for listing of VPBank shares on August 8, with the lender most likely to follow its plan of debuting on the country’s main bourse in the third quarter under the “VPB” ticker.

At a par value of VND10,000 ($0.44) per share, the more than 1.3 billion VPBank shares are worth VND13.33 trillion ($586.4 million). 

Its shares have been trading actively on the OTC market, at a price fluctuating around VND35,000 ($1.54) per share. 

At this price, VPBank’s market capitalization stands at approximately VND46.7 trillion ($2.1 billion), less than the three State-owned banks of Vietcombank, BIDV, and Vietinbank but much higher than other commercial banks.

A strong surge in all business activities together with a heavy decline in provision expenses saw VPBank’s pre-tax profit during the first half of this year double year-on-year to VND3.26 trillion ($143.4 million).

During the January-June period, momentum in its core businesses of credit and investment continued to grow strongly, bringing in net interest income of VND9.6 trillion ($422.3 million), an increase of 40.7 per cent year-on-year, while income from services rose 81.3 per cent to VND632 billion ($27.8 million).

Forex trading continued to sink, meanwhile, though the VND42.8 billion ($1.9 million) in losses recorded in the first half was only 30 per cent of the figure in the same period of 2016. 

Securities trading came in at VND36.6 billion ($1.6 million), in contrast to a loss of VND84.2 billion ($3.7 million) in the first half of last year.

Securities investment grew nearly three-fold year-on-year, to VND345 billion ($15.2 million), while other activities rose 29 per cent to VND743 billion ($32.7 million).

As at June 30, total assets stood at VND248.7 trillion ($10.94 billion), up 8.7 per cent since December 31. 

During the second quarter, the bank’s total non-performing loan (NPL) ratio fell slightly, from 2.86 per cent as at March 31 to 2.81 per cent, while bad debts parked at the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) stood at VND3.56 trillion ($156.6 million).

For 2017, it projects pre-tax profit to rise by 38 per cent year-on-year to VND6.8 trillion ($299.1 million), total assets to reach VND280.64 trillion ($12.34 billion), and customer deposits and issued valuable papers to rise 26.3 per cent year-on-year to VND217.73 trillion ($9.6 billion). 

It targets 12 per cent credit growth for the year, putting customer loans at VND182.43 trillion ($8 billion).

VN Economic Times