Finance
State-owned companies divest from banks
The share prices of banks listed on bourse have risen sharply, having facilitated the divestment of state-owned companies.

Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) has revealed that Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services One Member Limited Liability Company (Mobifone) would auction its shares in the two banks namely SeABank and TPBank on February 7, 2018.
Accordingly, Mobifone will sell 33.4 million shares at SeABank with the starting price of VND9,600 (roughly US$0.42) per share and over 5.5 million shares at TPBank with the starting price of VND12,800 (roughly US$0.56) per share. Mobifone is expected to gain nearly VND400 billion (roughly US$17.64 million) from the auctions of its stakes in these two banks.
Earlier in 2016, Mobifone sold parts of its shares in these two banks. Mobifone's 2016 report showed that the company did not get the successful divestment from SeABank and TPBank due to the unstable stock market and low liquidity.
However, the stock market has bounced back with high liquidity and Index performance for Ho Chi Minh Stock Index (VNIndex) which has surpassed 1,000 points after many years. Particularly, banks’ stocks have experienced high liquidity and surging prices of some banks’ shares.
Statistics show that in the past six months, the price of banks’ shares increased significantly, with that of ACB having increased by 46 per cent. The figures for VCB and BIDV are 42 per cent and 38 per cent.
The stock market has also witnessed a wave of banks listing shares. Recently, HDBank and VPBank have listed their shares on Hochiminh Stock Exchange (HOSE), attracting a great attention of investors.
Notably, these two banks sold large amounts of shares to foreign investors before the listings, attaining up to hundreds of millions of dollars. VPBank's market capitalization reached nearly US$3 billion, just following state-owned commercial banks including Vietcombank, BIDV, and Vietinbank.
Also, HDBank’s shares are trading at the price of VND39,600 (roughly US$1.74) per share which is higher than the market price of ACB, MB, Sacombank, BIDV and Vietinbank’s shares.
A number of other banks including VIB, LienVietPost Bank, KienLong Bank and recently Bac A Bank have also listed shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM). TPBank that has recently sold nearly five per cent of its stake worth US$40 million to PYN Elite Fund is also conducting the listing procedures.
In addition, the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) has announced the auction of its entire stake in Maritime Bank on January 18, 2018. However, it has faced difficulties in this transaction when selling its shares in the block form worth VND851 billion (roughly US$37.53 million) and there is no investor registering to participate in the auction.
Earlier at the end of November 2017, Vietcombank successfully sold more than 13 million shares at SaigonBank, gaining more than VND266 billion (roughly US$11.73 million). It also sold more than 13 million shares at OCB, attaining more than VND171 billion (roughly US$7.54 million).
The bank also revealed that it would continue to divest its capital from Eximbank and MB in early 2018 to reduce its stake to five per cent or less as regulated.
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