Money

November 2-8, 2015

Investors
cautious over
bank shares
By Trang Nguyen

Though local state-owned enterprises wishes to sell stakes in banks

to which they contributes capital, no
foreign investors want to buy such
stakes unless the foreign ownership
limit at banks is lifted.
As part of the groups route to
divest from its non-core businesses, state-run Electricity of
Vietnam (EVN) wants to sell its
stakes at Ho Chi Minh City-based
An Binh Bank (ABBank), and so
far has sold 81.5 million of ABBank shares, equivalent to 16 per
cent of the banks chartered capital. EVN still holds 41.5 million
ABBank shares, or 8 per cent of
the banks stakes.
Likewise, the Ministry of Finances (MoF) Debt and Asset Trading Corporation (DATC) has put its
stakes at Oriental Commercial Bank
(OCB) and Saigon Commercial
Bank (SCB) up for sale, starting at
VND4,900 ($0.22) per OCB share
and VND4,100 ($0.19) per SCB
share. The DATC currently owns
26,660 OCB shares and 24,662 SCB
shares.
State-run Vietnam Posts and
Telecommunications Group is also
divesting from its Maritime Bank
ownership, disposing of 71.5 million shares at a starting price of
VND11,700 ($0.54) per share.
Investing in banks was once
seen as the goose that lays the
golden egg for many state-owned
enterprises (SOEs). During 20072009, investing in banks or bank
stocks could certainly yield big
profits, and many banks were also
set up then, as part of the fashionable and profitable trend.
However, later on, the government decided that it did not need to

hold on to stakes that it deemed

non-essential.
The government and the banks
themselves have always yearned for
the participation in local banks of
foreign investors, who are very
strong financially and technically,
with modern corporate governance.
However, according to experts,
doubts are still lingering over the
local banks management and operation, as well as the prospects of the
local banking sector and the foreign
ownership threshold, which in turn
affect both local and foreign investor confidence and the decision
to invest in local banks.
Ho Chi Minh City-based chief
investment officer Andy Ho at
VinaCapital the countrys largest
fund manager in terms of assets,
when asked if the company had
plans to invest in banks, stated that
VinaCapital would not necessarily
acquire the local bank stocks, given
fears over the local banks weak
management and operation that had
led to fraud and the arrest of several
bank leaders in recent years.
Peter Sorensen, managing director at ABB Merchant Banking - a
Hanoi-based corporate and investment consulting firm, also commented that investing in a bank was
essentially a leveraged investment
in the Vietnamese economy, with a
premium according to the strength
of the particular institution being invested in. There was still a considerable amount of scepticism within
the investor community around the
Vietnamese economys exact future
trajectory.
The pricing of the bank stock is
being scrutinised very closely,
Sorensen said, explaining that as investments were proposed at a significant premium to book value, there

With foreign ownership still capped in banks, investor interest remains subdued

The FOL is currently

capped at 30 per cent, so
foreign investors do not
have a say at banks.
Investing a large amount
of money into banks, yet
lacking the right to make
important decisions
there, is indeed the
biggest drawback for
foreign investors like us.
- Andy Ho
VinaCapitals chief investment officer

was uncertainty among investors

about being able to get their required returns when investing in
Vietnamese banks.
Meanwhile, Takashi Sakakibara,
special advisor of Japan International Co-operation Agencys chief
representative in Hanoi, said that
the divestment process of local
banks, as far as Im concerned, still

has a long way to go.

According to him, the banks that
are going to be divested from are
small to medium-sized banks, with
limited network coverage and customer base. As such, foreign investors, including Japanese investors,
are not very interested in acquiring
these banks stocks at present.
VinaCapitals Ho underscored
the foreign ownership limit (FOL)
as a major obstruction to foreign
investors.
The FOL is currently capped at
30 per cent, so foreign investors do
not have a say at banks. Investing a
large amount of money into banks,
yet lacking the right to make important decisions there, is indeed the
biggest drawback for foreign
investors like us, he said.
The proposal
Vietcombank chairman Nghiem
Xuan Thanh recently proposed that
the government lift the FOL at
banks to above 30 per cent, and at
the same time, reduce state-owned
stakes at banks to 51 per cent, in a
bid to meet the raising demand for
bank capital, support the slumping
state budget, and subsequently at-

Photo: Le Toan

tract foreign investors.

Echoing Thanhs proposal,
Sakakibara, however, noted that it
would actually take time and a thorough procedure to consider raising
the FOL and reduce the state-owned
bank stakes.
While the government may
maintain the current FOL, it can perhaps grant foreign investors, who
may only acquire some 10-20 per
cent of the available bank stakes, the
right to veto important decisions in
the banks operations and management by amending the corporate
charters of the bank, he suggested.
ABBs Sorensen said that the
foreign ownership limit should be
fully removed from investments in
certain banks.
If foreign owners can hold majority stakes and fully control operations, they are more likely to bring
their technical expertise and experience to these banks, he said.
If foreign investors could hold
the majority in strong banks, they
will invest and help create leading
banking institutions in the country,
which could be role models for the
whole Vietnamese banking sector,
he said.n

Banks warned that bankruptcy safety net is temporary

By Minh Trang

Vietnam should let banks fall into

insolvency in the years to come, if
they are too weak.
During a conference discussing
a legal framework to support the
bank restructuring process, held in
Hanoi last week, Le Thi Nga,
Deputy Chairwoman of the National Assemblys Justice Committee, said that letting weak banks go
to the wall would ensure fairness
for taxpayers whose money is used
by the State Bank of Vietnam
(SBV) to save the weak banks.

A bank going into insolvency

will be a good lesson for both the
banking sector and depositors, preventing them from venturing to take
risks, resting assured that the SBV
can intervene and save them
anytime, she said.
According to her, the recent takeover of weak banks in Vietnam is
simply a temporary measure to minimise existing losses, amid the
clean-up process of the local banking system. As such, it should only
be regarded as a first step towards a
more rounded legal framework for
bankruptcy among the countrys

credit institutions, especially as the

National Assembly passed the Law
on Bankruptcy as recently as 2014.
This law, according to Nga, has
set up a legal framework outlining
the bankruptcy procedures for
credit institutions, and such a
process will be handled through the
court accordingly.
However, during 2011-2015, in
accordance with the governments
policies aimed at stabilising the
countrys macro-economy and ensuring the safety of banking activities,
the
government
has
temporarily held off on applying

bankruptcy
laws
at
credit
institutions.
The SBV has so far taken over
three troubled banks, namely
Global Petro Bank (GP Bank),
Vietnam
Construction
Bank
(VNCB), and OceanBank, for
VND0, as part of its efforts to wipe
out all weak and poorly-managed
banks in Vietnam.
According to the SBV, the local
banking system is not ready to undergo bank liquidation, and that
such a process could actually
threaten the safety of the whole
banking sector, as well as affect the

rights and benefits of depositors.

The SBV has firm legal
grounding to acquire the weak
banks at virtually nothing. It is actually the most practical measure at
the moment, given the current context of the banking system, and to
reduce losses during the bank restructuring process, said lawyer
Dang Dung of Dang Dung Law
Firm.
Such a measure has prevented
the falling domino effect in the
banking system and has also sent a
warning message to the management board of the banks, he said.n