Vietnam International Commercial Bank has got the go-ahead from the State Bank of Vietnam to issue 100 million shares this year to raise its chartered capital to VND4 trillion (US$211.2 million).

The issuance will be done in two stages to raise VND1 trillion, with 40 million shares issued to existing shareholders in the first and 60 million shares to international strategic partners in the second.

The bank has also received approval from the SBV to sell a 15 percent stake to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). The two sides agreed upon the transaction in April.

The CBA is the largest lender in Australia with assets of $785 billion. It has had a presence in the Vietnamese market for 16 years, opening a representative office in Ho Chi Minh City in 2008.

The two banks began cooperation last year under which the CBA has assisted the local lender with retail banking, technologies, risk management, and capital and human resource management.

After the acquisition, the Australian bank is set to transfer technologies and augment VIB’s capacity.

The central bank has given all banks until the end of this year to raise their capital to at least VND3 trillion ($158.2 million), depending on their total risk-weighted assets. The international norm is 8 percent of the assets but the SBV has fixed it at 9 percent.

Source: Tuoi Tre