VinaCaptial to invest US$11 million in OCB

By Minh An - Oct 23, 2017 | 05:56 PM GMT+7

TheLEADERThe Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) is the second bank to receive investment from VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd.

VinaCaptial to invest US$11 million in OCB
Transactions in the Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank. (Photo: OCB)

The Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF) managed by VinaCapital, one of Vietnam's leading investment management and real estate development firms, has been accepted to invest US$11 million in OCB. The detail of the investment has not been revealed but the proportion of equity held by the fund is less than five per cent.

Andy Ho, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of VinaCapital said that this is a rare opportunity to invest in a bank that has the high loan and profit growth and is run by a competent team with a clear expansion strategy.

OCB is a private small and medium-sized bank established in 1996. By mid-2017, the total assets of the bank reached nearly VND73,000 (roughly US$3.22 billion) and the loan size was around VND43,000 billion (roughly US$1.9 billion). The bank’s target for its earnings before tax for 2017 is VND780 billion (roughly US$34.39 million). After first six months of this year, 64 per cent of this target was reached.

In June 2016, OCB was licensed to raised its current charter capital of VND4,000 billion (roughly US$176.37 million) to VND5,000 billion (roughly US$220.46 million). OCB plans to issue VND805 billion (roughly US$35.49 million) of shares for investors and VND195 billion (roughly US$8.6 million) of bonus shares for existing shareholders. PNB Paribas, the leading European banking group, is OCB’s current biggest shareholder holding nearly 20 per cent stake.

Meanwhile, VOF is VinaCapital’s biggest investment fund in Vietnam, with the total assets being nearly US$1 billion. Lately, this fund continuously sold out its real estate investment portfolios that have been implemented for the passing years as well as conducted small investments in different fields.

Before investing in OCB, VOF invested US$11 million in FPT Digital Retail Joint Stock Company, a subsidiary of FPT Group, and another US$11 billion in Tasco Joint Stock Company, a construction firm in Vietnam.

At the investor conference last week, the VOF’s Board of Directors said it was considering five other investments totaling US$105 million including US$3 million of three investments in consumer goods.

VinaCapital is also interested in the equitization of state-owned enterprises. Lately, the company has purchased stakes in Viglacera Corporation and Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV).

VOF is also investing 3.4 per cent of its total assets worth about US$34 million in Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank).