False info on foreign ownership may hurt Sacombank: executive

Sacombank has asked the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) to clarify information regarding the bank’s foreign ownership limit of 23.63% because the bank may no longer be able to attract a foreign strategic investor if the ratio reaches 30%, said CEO Nguyen Duc Thach Diem.

Sacombank, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) as STB, said since the merger of Southern Bank in September 2016, with an additional of 400 million shares to raise the total to 1.49 billion shares, the foreign ownership limit (FOL) at the bank has been 23.63%.

Besides, the bank claimed it has never asked for its FOL to be raised to 30%, and such a move has never been approved by its shareholder meeting.

However, on February 10, the VSD stated that the foreign ownership at STB had reached 29.99%. The depository confirmed the FOL at the bank has always been set at 30% following two documents in 2014 in which the bank asked for the limit to be raised to 30%.

Sacombank added that the unclarified information on FOL would negatively impact investors' expectations, and foreign funds have expressed concerns about the bank's corporate governance and information management.

Following the information, foreign investors net sold 12.5 million STB shares from Tuesday to Thursday. STB shares soared 2.09% to VND24,400 ($1.02) each on Friday.

FOL at banks in Vietnam is capped at 30%. However, some banks themselves set the limit lower than the maximum level, such as VPBank (HoSE: VPB) 17.64%, VIB (HoSE: VIB) 20.5%, and Techcombank (HoSE: TCB) 22.46%.