UPDATE 1-HSBC buys into Vietnam's Techcombank for $17.3 mln
Wednesday 28 December 2005
HONG KONG, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Global bank HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research)(0005.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday it had struck a deal to buy 10 percent of Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) for US$17.3 million in cash, the third foreign bank to buy into a Vietnamese lender.
Hanoi-based Techcombank is the country's third-largest joint stock bank, with 45 branches currently and assets of $482 million as of end-2004, HSBC said in a statement. Vietnam's banking sector is dominated by five much larger state-run commercial banks.
HSBC's investment, which has won regulatory approval, follows stake purchases in semi-private Vietnamese lenders by UK-based rival Standard Chartered Plc. (STAN.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ.AX: Quote, Profile, Research).
Earlier this year, Asia-focused StanChart (2888.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) paid $22 million for 8.56 percent of Vietnam's Asia Commercial Bank. That followed ANZ's March deal to pay $27 million for 10 percent of Sacombank, Vietnam's largest semi-private bank by capital.
HSBC already operates two branches in Vietnam: one in Hanoi and one in Ho Chi Minh City.
"We are optimistic about the prospects for Vietnam, which has benefited from continued, strong economic growth over the past few years and measures taken by the government to expand the local banking industry," Alain Cany, chief executive officer of HSBC in Vietnam, said in the statement.
(Additional reporting by Ho Binh Minh in Hanoi)
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