PVFC looks to become bank
By Ngoc Lan - The Saigon Times Daily
HANOI – PetroVietnam Finance Joint Stock Company (PVFC) is seeking permission of the State Bank of Vietnam to turn into a commercial bank, said PVFC general director Nguyen Thien Bao.
This will be the major target of PVFC this year, Bao said, revealing the company has sent its petition to the central bank and is pending official decision.
“Actually, we are functioning as a mid-sized bank now, with ten branches and 25 transaction points,” said Bao.
PVFC’s assets totaled more than VND88.8 trillion and mobilized capital amounted to VND50.6 trillion by the end of 2011. The company last year obtained VND8 trillion in revenue and earned VND553 billion of pre-tax profit.
PVFC is accelerating the restructuring of debts and investment portfolios to achieve its goal of becoming a bank. However, it is necessary that PVFC decrease the State stake from 78% to an estimated 20%.
In case PVFC becomes a commercial bank, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) could no longer hold a dominant stake in the finance company, because the prevalent regulations disallow an organization to hold major stakes in two banks. PVN is already the dominant shareholder of GP Bank.
PVFC is focusing on transfer of projects and investment portfolios and recovery of VND2.8 trillion from inefficient or low-efficient investment and VND700 billion from investment trusts in order to quickly turn into a bank.
Bao said PVFC had collected VND1.02 trillion out of the total VND1.8 trillion owed by the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin). The remainder is secured on Vinashin’s assets, so the finance company can collect some 20-30% of the arrears.