Sacombank to set up wholly-owned banks in Laos and Cambodia

By Thuy Trieu - The Saigon Times Daily

Shareholders vote for Sacombank’s 2010 plan in the general meeting on Monday - Photo: Thuy Trieu

The meeting authorized Sacombank’s board of directors to choose a suitable time to change the operation model of the two branches in the neighboring countries. In addition, the bank will find opportunities to set up a branch, or a wholly-owned bank, or another kind of enterprise suiting the laws of Myanmar.

Dang Van Thanh, chairman of Sacombank, told the meeting that the representative office of Sacombank in China had finished exploring the new market. However, to set up a branch in China, the bank must have total assets of at least US$21 billion according to the country’s regulation. “That requirement is much higher than the bank’s ability so Sacombank will find a suitable point of time to close the representative office,” Thanh said.

In terms of capital withdrawal of Sacombank’s foreign shareholder ANZ, Thanh said Sacombank respected the private business plan of ANZ in Vietnam as the foreign lender had established a wholly foreign owned bank here and had competed directly with Sacombank.

“ANZ will introduce a new shareholder for Sacombank this week and commit to withdraw capital from Sacombank by minimizing effects on the bank’s share price,” Thanh said. At this time, ANZ holds a 10% stake in Sacombank. The bank’s share price on Monday declined 0.4% to VND23,800 per share.

In 2009, Sacombank obtained VND1.9 trillion in pre-tax profit, increasing 74% from the previous year. The bank targets VND146 trillion in total assets, VND129 trillion in mobilization, VND80 trillion in outstanding loans and VND2.4 trillion in pre-tax profit this year, increases of 48%, 50%, 45% and 26% respectively from 2009. In the first two months of this year, Sacombank achieved VND300 billion in pre-tax profit.