Vietcombank the second largest shareholder of Eximbank

State-controlled giant Vietcombank has become the second largest shareholder of private lender Eximbank after Gelex, holding 78.9 million EIB shares, or a 4.51% stake, as of October 10.

Vietcombank has maintained a significant stake in Eximbank for over a decade. Before 2012, the creditor owned more than 8.19% of Eximbank's charter capital, but subsequently reduced its ownership to 4.5% per regulatory requirements.

The original cost of the 78.9 million EIB shares was nearly VND400 billion ($16 million), while their current market value exceeds VND1.4 trillion ($56 million).

In recent months, Eximbank's shareholder structure has experienced significant changes, notably with Gelex Group emerging as the largest shareholder with 174.7 million EIB shares, or a 10% stake.

Gelex first appeared on Eximbank's shareholder list in July and has since increased its stake from 4.9% to 10%.

Nguyen Van Tuan, CEO of Gelex, is among the largest shareholders of the company. He and his family members have also held leadership positions at VIX Securities, which owns over 62.3 million EIB shares, or 3.58%.

The list of shareholders holding over 1% of Eximbank’s charter capital includes VIX Securities and two individuals: vice chairwoman Luong Thi Cam Tu and Le Thi Mai Loan, with 1.12% and over 1%, respectively.

Over the last several days, a document titled “Urgent petition and report on serious risks leading to operational safety issues and the potential collapse of Eximbank” had been spreading on social media, resulting in a sell-off of EIB shares on Monday.

On Tuesday evening, Eximbank declared that the document was not an official statement from its supervisory board. The document did not originate within the bank and contained false information, it stressed.

The bank affirmed that it was operating “steadily, safely and effectively, meeting the diverse financial needs of its customers and partners.

Earlier, Eximbank's board of directors had decided to convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholder (EGM) to discuss changing the location of its headquarters and other relevant matters. Notably, the EGM was set to be held in Hanoi, even though the bank's headquarters is located in Ho Chi Minh City, where most previous meetings have taken place.

Eximbank has set a pretax profit target of VND5.18 trillion ($210.8 million) for 2024, an increase of 90.5% from last year. It also aims for total asset expansion of 11% to VND223.5 trillion ($9.09 billion) and outstanding loan growth of 14.6% to VND161 trillion ($6.55 billion) by the end of this year.

In 2023, Eximbank reported pre-tax profits of VND2.72 trillion ($110.7 million), down nearly 27% from 2022 and equal to 54.4% of the annual target of VND5 trillion ($203.46 million) approved by its AGM.

EIB shares closed Wednesday at VND18,450 ($0.74) apiece, up 1.37% from the previous session.