String of banking shareholders' meetings on one day

The Eximbank shareholders' meeting on April 26 drew in few participants

On the day, Vietcombank, BIDV, NCB, and VPBank organised shareholders’ meetings in Hanoi; while Sacombank, Eximbank, Saigonbank, and Vietcapital Bank held theirs in Ho Chi Minh City. Viet A Bank welcomed shareholders at the southern city of Da Lat. On April 27 – the last day before the Liberation holiday – MB Bank and OCB also held their shareholders’ meetings.

Most banks reached the positive business results last year and have even better prospects for 2019.

For instance, Vietcombank hopes to get VND20.5 trillion ($891.3 million) in profit in 2019. Its credit growth rate will hit 15 per cent, the growth rate of capital mobilisation will be maintained at 11-13 per cent, while capital usage will increase to 85-87 per cent. On the other hand, the bad debts ratio is expected to be controlled under 1 per cent. The bank also plans to pay 8 per cent dividend in 2019 – the same rate as in 2018.

The bank also submitted a proposal to its shareholders about adding one new member to the management board for the 2018-2023 term. Currently, Vietcombank’s management board has 8 members after the dismissal Nguyen Thi Dung in 2018.

Meanwhile, Sacombank set the target of increasing its total asset value to VND455.5 trillion ($19.8 billion), up at least 12 per cent on-year. Total capital mobilised is forecast to hit VND423.5 trillion ($18.4 billion), up more than 14 per cent against 2018. Total credit debt will reach VND298.1 trillion ($12.96 billion), up approximately 16 per cent year-on-year, including borrowers’ VND297.6 trillion ($12.94 billion). Pre-tax profit is expected to hit VND2.65 trillion ($115.2 million), up 18 per cent on-year.

BIDV plans to reach credit growth of 12 per cent, capital mobilisation growth rate of 11 per cent, and bad debts of less than 2 per cent. Pre-tax profit will be VND10.5 trillion ($456.5 million). In addition, the bank will also step up the resolution of bad debts this year.

Financial reports from the last fourth quarter showed that the volume of bad debts has fallen significantly against the beginning of the year, with the decrease reaching even 50 per cent at some banks.

According to the available financial reports (Vietcombank, Techcombank, VPBank, Sacombank, LienVietPostBank, VIB, MBBank, ACB, ABBank, TPBank, PGBank, BacABank, Saigonbank, Kienlongbank, and VietBank) the total bad debts in 2018 stood at more than VND34.81 trillion ($1.51 billion), down 17 per cent on-year.

On the other hand, a large number of banks have yet to get a hold of their bad debts, leading to high risk provisions. For instance, as of the end of 2018, VPBank’s bad debts stood at VND7.766 trillion ($337.7 million), down VND1.6 trillion ($69.6 million) against late last September 2018, but up 25 per cent against early last year. Agribank and Vietinbank are similar cases.