Vietnam banking restructuring sees first merger
The State Bank of Vietnam, the country’s central bank, on Tuesday gave the final approval for the merger between SHB and Habubank, which is the first merger to take place under the master plan to restructure the whole system, initiated in April.
The merger was done through the initiative of Habubank, or the Hanoi Building Commercial Joint Stock Bank, and is the second merger the system has witnessed since 2011, after Ficombank, TinNghiaBank and Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) were ordered to merge with each other in December.
SHB, fully known as the Saigon – Hanoi Bank Commercial Joint Stock Bank, will begin merging Habubank’s braches, network, and workforce into its system in the following days, the bank’s CEO, Nguyen Van Le, told Tuoi Tre.
The post-merger SHB will have 54 branches and 150 transaction offices countrywide, and some 5,000 bankers and employees, added Le.
It will have total assets of VND132 trillion, or $6.33 billion, with total registered capital amounting to VND9 trillion, enabling SHB to become one of the country’s eight largest banks by assets.
The two banks held a shareholder meeting last April, after which SHB began to take over management activities in Habubank, according to economic website VnEconomy.
They both saw shares peaked to ceiling prices after the news over the merger was spread on Tuesday.
The Habubank brand will be removed from the market, and the merged bank will continue operating under SHB’s name.
Category: Finance
