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UPDATE 2-IFC to reduce stake in Vietnam's Sacombank
Mon Dec 24, 2007 6:17am EST
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HANOI, Dec 24 (Reuters) - The World Bank's International Finance Corp, which owns 7.6 percent of Sacombank STB.HM, will sell more than a quarter of its shares in the bank, Vietnam's largest listed firm, the stock exchange said on Monday.
Starting on Tuesday, the IFC will sell 8.9 million Sacombank shares over a six-month period to reduce its holding to about 25 million shares, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange said in a statement. It gave no reason for the sale.
Ho Chi Minh City-based Sacombank, or Saigon Thuong Tin Bank, is the country's sixth-largest lender by assets.
Shares in the bank, the first listed lender in the communist-ruled country, closed flat at 66,500 dong ($4.13) on Monday, valuing it at $1.84 billion.
Sacombank is now the largest listed firm among 137 companies on the Ho Chi Minh exchange.
The IFC along with Dragon Capital and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) own a combined 30 percent of Sacombank, the ceiling for foreign ownership of listed banks in Vietnam.
Last week the Ho Chi Minh exchange said ANZ was seeking to buy 703,000 shares in Sacombank over a three-month period starting Dec. 21 to boost its holding to 10 percent of the bank.
Earlier this month, Sacombank said its 11-month gross profit soared 187 percent from a year ago to 1.35 trillion dong ($83.8 million) thanks to a rise of 125 percent in lending.
Total assets of the bank were up 147 percent at the end of November from a year earlier, to 57.6 trillion dong ($3.6 billion), the bank said.
Sacombank aims to lift its gross profit next year to 2.5 trillion dong, Chairman Dang Van Thanh said in an interview with the official Saigon Giai Phong newspaper last week.
Investors said shares in Sacombank and Asia Commercial Bank ACB.HN, Vietnam's two listed banks, could rise if an upcoming initial public offering by state-run Vietcombank on Dec. 26 prices the shares above their starting price of 100,000 dong each.
Vietcombank, the country's largest firm to conduct an IPO, is slated to raise at least $604 million through the sale of 97.5 million shares, or 6.5 percent of its stock, at the auction this Wednesday, the exchange has said.
After the IPO, Vietcombank executives have said the bank planned to list on the Ho Chi Minh exchange by the end of the first quarter next year at the earliest. ($1=16,113 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Rory Channing)
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