Singapore’s SBI Ven Holdings to increase stake in Vietnamese lender TPBank

According to an announcement from TPBank, the Singapore’s private equity firm registered to purchase over 4.04 million shares of the bank where it currently owns 26.94 million shares, equivalent to 4.61 per cent.

If the transaction is successful, the PE firm will increase the number of shares to over 30.9 million shares or 5.3 per cent stake in the lender. Meanwhile, four other companies owned by Nguyen Thi Thu Nguyet, a member of the Supervisory Board of TPBank, also registered to buy more than 13.3 million shares of the bank.

These four companies currently own more than 89 million TPB shares, equivalent to 15.3 stake. The transaction process, which started on June 8, is expected to close on July 7.

The shares registered to purchase are a part of 87.6 million shares that will be offered for sale via the upcoming private placement of TPBank. The bank plans to sell about a 15 per cent stake to investors via a private placement and issue 28 per cent of dividend and bonus shares during the last three months of the year.

It expects to raise its registered capital to 8.5 trillion dong ($372 million), up from its current VND5.84 trillion ($256.9 million), this year through the shares issuances, he said.

TPBank’s major shareholders include the International Finance Corporation (5%), FPT Corporation (8.68%), DOJI Gold and Gems Group (7.60%), Vietnam National Reinsurance Corporation (VinaRe) (5.14%) and SBI Ven Holdings (4.61%).

IFC, the private lending arm of the World Bank Group in April proposed to extend a financing facility of up to $100 million to TPBank.