Vietnam’s fifth largest lender, Asia Commercial Bank or ACB, targets this year’s pre-tax profit to be VND2.7 trillion, a little higher than its performance of VND2.56 trillion last year despite of the current economic slowdown.
The Ho Chi Minh City-based bank’s 2009 plan was approved at its annual general shareholders meeting in the city on April 18.
The lender’s CEO Ly Xuan Hai, answering a shareholder’s question why the target profit was not much higher than last year’s result, said his bank’s target this year is still sustainable growth and not pursuing high profit.
The general shareholders meeting agreed this year’s total assets to be VND170 trillion, increasing by up to 61%. The bank expects deposits to be VND130 trillion and VND65 trillion in total outstanding loans, up 73% and 87%, respectively.
The meeting also endorsed the bank’s plans to set up two new arms – a financial company and a gold trading company.
Earlier this month, the State Bank of Vietnam allowed ACB to sell VND11 trillion (about US$619 million) of bonds this year.
ACB says it expects to become one of the top three banking groups of Vietnam by 2015.
In related news, Vietnam Export Import Commercial Bank, or Eximbank, has decided to raise its capital to VND8.8 trillion from VND7.22 this year. Eximbank will issue 158 million more bonus shares to existing shares at the ratio of 100:22.
Under the 2009 business plan endorsed at the Eximbank annual general shareholders meeting in HCM City on April 17, the bank looks to pre-tax profit of VND1.5 trillion this year, increasing 55% on last year’s result.
