(Adds background, share price)
HANOI, June 1 (Reuters) – VietinBank , Vietnam’s
largest listed lender, will complete the sale of a 15 percent
stake to Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia in the second
half of 2011, a state-run newspaper said on Wednesday.
The sale, worth 3.57 trillion dong ($174 million) in face
value, would be conducted via a new share issue in the third or
the fourth quarter, the central bank-run Banking Times newspaper
reported, after VietinBank shareholders had approved the plan.
The sale, a delay from an initial target to complete it in
the second quarter ended June, is part of a plan to raise
VietinBank’s registered capital by 41 percent to 23.8 trillion
dong this year, shareholders were told by the bank’s management
at an annual meeting on Tuesday. [ID:nHAN232194]
The report did not disclose the actual value VietinBank
intended to raise from the sale.
In October, the International Finance Corp bought 10 percent
of Hanoi-based VietinBank for $186 million. [ID:HAN156187]
After completing the capital-raising plan this year via
share issues, the state ownership in VietinBank will drop to
68.26 percent from 80.3 percent now, the newspaper reported.
VietinBank shares were up 3.7 percent in early trading on
Wednesday.
The bank has projected raising its full-year gross profit
this year by 11 percent to 5.1 trillion dong and is seeking to
achieve an annual growth of 20 percent each for credit, deposits
and the total assets, VietinBank said in a report to
shareholders last month.
($1=20,520 dong)
(Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman)