Vietnam’s SeABank halts plan to sell shares to Norway investment fund

Vietnamese lender SeABank, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange as SSB, has decided not to proceed with a planned sale of shares to the Norwegian Investment Fund (Norfund), the bank announced Friday.

According to July documents, the bank originally plans to sell 94.6 million shares, equivalent to 4.63% of SeABank’s total floating shares, to the Norwegian fund, for VND1,216.7 billion ($50.5 million). The expected offering price would not be lower than the book value of VND12,861 ($0.54) per share and not exceed 120% of the average price of SSB shares over the last 30 sessions, at VND37,032 ($1.56) per share, the bank had said then.

SeABank did not explain the decision, which was taken even as SSB share value was falling. Since the peak of VND30,400 ($1.25) per share reached on August 7 after the share sales announcement, the stock fell to VND23,800 last Friday.

Currently, SeABank does not have a foreign strategic shareholder. In 2018, the bank’s foreign strategic shareholder, French-based Societe Generale Group, divested its entire stake. The group had started to invest in the bank in 2008, acquiring a 15% stake. In the following years, Societe Generale continued to buy more shares to increase its ownership in the bank to a maximum of 20%.

After Societe Generale’s divestment, SeABank locked its foreign room at 0% and then raised it to 5% in August 2021.

In the first half of 2023, the bank reported total revenues of nearly VND12.11 trillion ($511.26 million), up 18% year-on-year, and pre-tax profit of VND2.02 trillion ($85.12 million), down 28%.

As of June 30, the bank's assets value stood at over VND245.21 trillion ($10.35 billion), up 5.96% compared to the beginning of the year, with outstanding loans to customers at VND161.89 trillion ($6.84 billion), up 5.15%.