Despite a correction of the market on July 19 after a winning streak of eight sessions, Vietcombank’s shares (VCB) soared to a historic peak of VNĐ106,500 per share (US$4.51), an increase of 33.1 per cent from the end of 2022.

During the trading day, the shares even hit a session high of VNĐ107,100 each. With the gain, the bank’s market capitalisation reached more than VNĐ504 trillion, equivalent to one-tenth of the whole market capitalisation. It is also the largest value an enterprise has ever reached in the 23-year history of the Vietnamese stock market.

Vietcombank on July 26 will close its list of final registrations for the right to receive dividends from the remaining profits of 2019 and 2020. It will issue nearly 856.6 million shares to pay dividends at a rate of 18.1 per cent, meaning a shareholder owning 1,000 shares at the close date of registration will get 181 new shares.

After the issuance, the bank’s charter capital is expected to increase by nearly VNĐ8.6 trillion to over VNĐ55.89 trillion. As a result, Vietcombank will surpass Vietinbank and BIDV to become the second-largest lender in the system, after VPBank.

The bank said that the increase in charter capital will help the bank to expand business operations, satisfy the capital needs of the economy, and invest in transformation projects, improving its governance and management capacity. Moreover, the Chairman of Vietcombank said that the bank is carrying out two more capital-raising plans. Particularly, it will raise capital by around VNĐ27 trillion, which is from 2021’s profit and the remaining accumulated profits before 2018.

The lender also plans a private placement for foreign investors, with an issuance date of 2023-24. In the first half of 2023, Vietcombank’s capital mobilisation and credit growth were 6.6 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively, Nguyễn Thanh Tùng, General Director of Vietcombank, said at the conference to review the first six months of the banking industry.

Credit quality is under control, while its bad debt ratio is 0.85 per cent with a provision buffer for bad debt of over 350 per cent.

Vietnam News