Vietnam’s Techcombank readies for market debut after raising $922 mln

Vietnamese lender Techcombank will list its shares on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange next month, the bank said on Wednesday, making it the country’s seventh biggest firm by market value.

Techcombank raised $922 million last month in one of the country’s biggest initial public offerings. Its cornerstone investors are Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, Fidelity Management and Research, and local fund Dragon Capital.

The Hanoi-based lender said it would list on June 4 at a reference price of VND128,000 ($5.62), valuing the bank at $6.5 billion and making it Vietnam’s second-biggest listed bank after state-controlled Vietcombank.

The shares will be allowed to move 20 percent higher or lower than the reference price on the first day of listing, according to exchange trading rules.

Techcombank provides a broad range of banking products and services to more than 5.4 million customers in Vietnam through a network of 315 branches.

The bank’s Chief Executive Officer Nguyen Le Quoc Anh said 2018 was a year of robust activity for Vietnam’s stock market as the economy showed strong growth momentum.

“We believe this is a suitable time to list Techcombank after two years of preparation,” he said in a statement.

Techcombank aimed to increase retail lending to 50-55 percent of total loans, up from 40 percent, in the coming years, while reducing the proportion of corporate loans, said Nguyen Xuan Minh, chairman of Techcombank Securities and head of Techcombank’s investment banking division.

The bank aimed to increase its registered capital by nearly three times this year to better compete with regional rivals.

“As the ASEAN Economic Community forms, our competitors are not only local banks but also banks from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore. That’s our goal,” Quoc Anh said on Wednesday, referring to the group of Southeast Asian nations.

Foreign investors own 22.5 percent of Techcombank. Vietnam limits foreign ownership in local banks to 30 percent.