Banks step up private placements to foreign investors in 2024

After a quiet year in 2023, many banks will promote stock offering to foreign investors again and some of them may complete the deals this year, analysts forecast.

In an analysis report released recently, Vietcap Securities Company (VCSC) said with predicted faster economic growth in Vietnam by 2024, capital raising activities will be stronger from the second half of 2024.

Notably, Vietcombank, BIDV and LPBank are expected to mobilise new capital through private placement with an estimated total value of 64.9 trillion VND (2.63 billion USD) in 2024, VCSC said.

According to a plan approved in the bank’s 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders (AGM), Vietcombank will conduct a private placement in the 2023-2024 period, offering 6.5% of shares to foreign investors.

At a recent extraordinary AGM, BIDV also approved to adjust the implementation time for offering additional shares in the bank’s plan to increase charter capital in 2023. Specifically, the AGM decided to delay the implementation time to 2024. Under the plan, BIDV will issue an additional 455 million shares in the form of public offering or private offering. BIDV has not announced details of the offering plan, but it has long had a plan for a private placement for foreign investors.

Besides State-owned banks Vietcombank and BIDV, private banks such as LPBank, SHB and HDBank have also planned for stock offering to foreign investors in 2024.

LPBank is implementing steps in its plan to issue 300 million shares under private placement to foreign investors. The specific offering time will be decided by the bank's board of directors after approval by competent State agencies. The shares offered to foreign investors are subject to a three-year transfer restriction for strategic investors and a one-year transfer restriction for professional securities investors.

SHB Chairman Do Quang Hien informed the bank’s shareholders that the share offering to foreign investors will be completed in 2023 or early 2024. Previously, at SHB’s 2023 AGM, the bank approved the continued implementation of increasing capital from the issuance of shares for foreign investors and foreign strategic investors.

At a recent meeting with investors, Hoang Thanh Tung, Director of HDBank's Investment Relations Division, said that HDBank has made the necessary preparations for issuance to increase capital as it reserves about 10% foreign ownership room to strategic partners.

According to Tung, HDBank has so far received interest from a number of foreign partners from the Republic of Korea, Europe and the US. Selecting investors to issue capital and attracting strategic shareholders are always within HDBank's orientation to improve financial strength to meet growth needs, while still ensuring the central bank’s regulated capital adequacy ratio and liquidity./.