A bank teller counts US dollars in a branch in Ha Noi. Banks are racing to increase charter capital in 2022. NDH.VN
Many Vietnamese banks have announced plans to increase capital strongly in the ongoing season of general meetings of shareholders (GMS) this year.
The capital increase plans mainly include paying dividends in shares, making private placement to foreign strategic investors or employee stock ownership plans (ESOP).
SeABank was the latest to announce plans to increase its charter capital from 16.59 trillion dong to 22.69 trillion ($742 million to $991 million) in 2022. The bank’s capital increase, which is aimed to continually improve its financial capacity, supplement capital for business activities and achieve set growth goals, will come from issuing shares to pay dividends, ESOP and private placement.
Specifically, SeABank plans to issue 321.1 million ordinary shares with a par value of 10,000 dong per share, of which 211.4 million shares (equivalent to 12.7 per cent) are to pay dividends in 2021 and 109.7 million shares (equal to a 6.6 per cent rate) are for existing shareholders.
For the ESOP, SeABank has expected to issue 59.4 million shares for employees.
In addition, SeABank might make a private placement of 228.7 million shares to foreign investors if necessary.
Recently, Military Bank (MB) said it would continue to implement the plan to increase charter capital by 892.4 billion dong. Accordingly, the bank will issue 70 million shares for network operator Viettel Group and 19.24 million shares under the ESOP programme.
In addition, MB also plans to offer 65 million new shares in 2022-2023 at a put-through price that is not lower than the book value, according to the latest audited financial statements.
MB’s additional charter capital is expected to be nearly 9.1 trillion dong, which will be used to supplement the bank’s investment and business capital.
Previously, early this month, the board of directors of ACB also submitted a plan to its shareholders to increase capital to more than 33.7 trillion dong by issuing shares to pay dividends in 2021 at the rate of 25 per cent.
MSB has also submitted to the bank’s general meeting of shareholders to approve the dividend payment in shares at a rate of 30 per cent for 2021.
Meanwhile, the general meeting of shareholders of VIB approved the payment of dividends and bonus shares at the rate of 35 per cent besides an ESOP programme to raise the charter capital to 21 trillion dong.
As for state-owned banks, at the upcoming general meeting of shareholders, Vietcombank will also submit a plan to increase its charter capital in 2022.
Earlier this year, the bank completed the issuance of more than 1.02 billion shares from the remaining profit source in 2019 to pay dividends, raising its charter capital to more than 47.3 trillion dong.
After completing the dividend payment in shares at a rate of 25.7 per cent to increase its charter capital to 50.58 trillion dong recently, BIDV has also planned to issue 341.5 million new shares, equivalent to 8.5 per cent of charter capital through a public offering or private placement.
Expert Tran Du Lich forecast the bank’s race to increase charter capital would continue strongly in 2022, explaining that as credit growth increases, the banks’ equity must also be raised at the same rate to help them maintain their growth momentum and meet the capital adequacy margin.
VIET NAM NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
