Vietnam's Eximbank and Japan's SMBC officially break up after 14 years

Eximbank's board of directors has just adopted a resolution terminating the strategic partnership agreement inked between Eximbank and Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) under the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group since 2007. The decision was taken on January 5 in response to a written request from SMBC.

According to the original deal, SMBC contributed $225 million to acquire 15 per cent of Eximbank’s charter capital and become the largest foreign strategic shareholder. As one of the most active local lenders at that time, Eximbank was valued at $1.5 billion after the Japanese lender's involvement.

The Japanese banking giant was eager to assist and collaborate with Eximbank to advance retail banking, investment banking, and risk management services in Vietnam.

However, Eximbank has been tangled up with a range of financial disputes for several years. As a result, SMBC has been caught down in the decade-long disputes between Eximbank's shareholders.

SMBC's 15 per cent stake in Eximbank is presently valued at around $290 million.

Currently, foreign investors possess a 29.7 per cent stake of Eximbank's capital, according to the publicly available information.

Along with SMBC, in 2008, Eximbank also offered 5 per cent shares to VinaCapital's VOF fund and 5 per cent to two Mirae Asset funds. VOF still owns around 5 per cent of the total capital of Eximbank as of current.

SMBC is rumoured to receive a total of about VND1.050 trillion ($45.7 million) in cash dividends from Eximbank in the period of 2009-2013.

Eximbank had originally intended to pay back the dividend after seven years after paying off all Vietnam Asset Management Company's debts, but that plan was scrapped last year.