Thailand’s Krungsri, VietinBank to help Thai firms enter Vietnam

Thailand's leading bank Krungsri and VietinBank, a “Big-four” bank in Vietnam, will collaborate to help Thai companies expand their business to Vietnam.

The two sides and Japan’s leading banking institution Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) signed a memorandum of understanding for the move on Tuesday, within the Krungsri ASEAN LINK Forum event in Bangkok.

MUFG holds a 76.8% stake in To Krungsri and a 19.7% stake in Vietinbank.

At the forum, a flagship event of Krungsri, the bank offered in-depth analysis of business trends and consumer behavior in ASEAN and valuable insights into expanding business into Vietnam, “the rising star of ASEAN.”

Krungsri and MUFG also signed similar deals with Bank Danamon in Indonesia and Security Bank in the Philippines to help Thai customers expand their businesses into these ASEAN countries.

Vietnam has so far attracted 41,142 valid FDI projects with a total registered capital of $491.39 billion, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Thailand ranked ninth with 759 projects worth $14.19 billion.

One of the most recent activities of Krungsri in Vietnam was the acquisition of SHB Finance, the consumer finance arm of private lender Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB).

In August 2021, SHB and Krungsri reached an agreement on the latter’s acquisition of SHB Finance with a total value of VND3.59 trillion ($153.12 million), marking the Thai lender’s entrance into Vietnam as part of its ASEAN expansion.

In May 2023, SHB announced it has completed the initial 50% stake sale to Krungsri and the two sides would continue cooperation to complete the sale of the remaining 50% soon.