Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank, or Techcombank, is looking to raise at least US$162.7 million through the sale of treasury shares to foreign investors and plans to pursue an IPO in 2018, DealStreetAsia reported March 4, citing the bank's chairman, Ho Hung Anh.
The bank aims to offer more than 158 million treasury shares to foreign investors at a minimum price of 23,445 Vietnamese dong per share. It plans to mainly sell the shares to U.S. and European investors. Proceeds from the offering will be used to increase the bank's assets, expand its network and credit operations and invest in government bonds.
With the share sale, Hung Anh said 2018 will be the right time to proceed with the bank's IPO plan. Techcombank sought to list its shares on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in 2017, but postponed the plan as the timing was not right.
Foreign shareholding in the bank stands at zero percent after HSBC Holdings PLC sold back its shares in the company in 2017. Techombank plans to raise foreign ownership to not more than 30%.
Further, the bank said it targets a pretax profit of 10 trillion dong in 2018, up from 8 trillion dong in 2017.
As of March 2, US$1 was equivalent to 22,764 Vietnamese dong.
