Shareholders request to buy treasury stocks, VPBank Chairman of Board of Directors gives reason for refusal

VPBank's Board of Directors answers shareholders' questions at the 2025 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders.

Pay cash dividends for the next 2 years, do not buy treasury stocks

At the General Meeting of Shareholders held today (April 27), VPBank's Board of Directors presented shareholders with a plan to pay a 5% cash dividend.

Chairman of the Board of Directors Ngo Chi Dung said that more than 3 years ago, VPBank's Board of Directors announced that it would maintain a policy of paying cash dividends continuously for 5 years, equivalent to spending 20,000 billion VND to pay cash dividends to shareholders. Previously, for 12 years, from 2010 to 2022, VPBank had persistently not paid dividends in order to focus on developing the bank. Thanks to that, VPBank has achieved sustainable growth in both scale and operational efficiency.

"From 2022, we will start to balance the long-term growth target and the reasonable needs of shareholders. Over the past 3 years, VPBank has maintained cash dividend payments, spending about VND4,000 billion each year on this activity. Dividend payments are made to meet shareholders' needs while ensuring that the bank still has enough capital to maintain relatively high growth according to the set strategy. This year is the third year of implementing the 5-year commitment. Thus, in the next two years, we will continue to maintain the cash dividend policy. However, the specific payment level will depend on the business situation, capital mobilization situation and annual growth," said Mr. Ngo Chi Dung.

In the context of low stock prices as present, some shareholders have suggested that the Board of Directors consider the option of buying back treasury shares.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Ngo Chi Dung said that according to the State Bank's regulations, if treasury stocks are purchased, they will be deducted from the capital, while the bank needs to increase capital. Therefore, the purchase of treasury stocks needs to be carefully considered.

"When VPBank participated in the restructuring project with GPBank, the biggest goal was not the financial goal, but the goal of 35% credit growth within 5 years. Scale growth is VPBank's number 1 need. The bank balances both meeting the needs of shareholders and the capital needs of growth. Part of the capital has been paid to shareholders as dividends, so it cannot buy treasury stocks," the Chairman of VPBank explained.

Novaland's bad debt is being resolved, bond balance is not much left

Regarding shareholders' questions about real estate bad debt as well as corporate bond debt, General Director Nguyen Duc Vinh said that the bad debt of concern is mainly bad debt related to projects, including Novaland's projects.

According to Mr. Vinh, Novaland's projects have partially improved their legal documents (about 30%), the rest the company is in the process of completing and is in the process of handling with banks.

VPBank's leaders believe that, normally, bad debt in 2025 will be revealed in the first 6 months of the year and be more stable in the second half of the year.

Although bad debts related to real estate show signs of increasing, VPBank CEO believes that real estate is still a particularly important sector of the Vietnamese economy . The bank will learn from past experiences with resort real estate projects and instead focus on participating in good projects and reputable investors in the market.

"With real estate credit, VPBank continues to maintain growth within the framework permitted by the State Bank. This continues to be an area where VPBank will continue to pay attention and develop outstanding loans. In particular, VPBank will focus on supporting home buyers (currently accounting for more than 40% of VPBank's total outstanding real estate loans).

Regarding corporate bond debt, Mr. Vinh informed that currently, corporate bond debt at VPBank is only under 10,000 billion VND, if including VPBanks, it is about 18,000 billion VND, very small compared to the total outstanding debt of the bank.

"In the recent period, the corporate bond market has been relatively quiet, but the Government still has a policy to promote this market. In the coming time, VPBank will continue to select reputable enterprises to participate in developing this market in order to create more different sources of capital for enterprises," said Mr. Vinh.

GPBank will be profitable this year, expanding room to 49% is a great opportunity

Regarding the restructuring of GPBank, the Chairman of VPBank said that in the restructuring project of Global Petroleum Commercial Bank Limited (GPBank), the Board of Directors and the Executive Board have prepared very carefully and have so far completed the senior personnel. The Chairman of VPBank is also confident in the successful restructuring of GPBank.

"Before the transfer, GPBank lost an average of over VND1,000 billion per year. Although it was just transferred to VPBank (March 2025), this year, VPBank is expected to be profitable, achieving a minimum profit of VND500 billion. Shareholders can rest assured that VPBank has made thorough preparations and will certainly restructure GPBank successfully," said Mr. Dung.

Thanks to participating in the restructuring of GPBank, VPBank's leaders said that the bank is allowed to increase its room to 49%. Currently, VPBank's foreign room on the stock exchange is not exhausted, but that room can be exhausted at any time if the macro economy improves from now until the end of the year, foreign funds can return and buy very quickly.

"Therefore, expanding the room to 49% is very important because it can be used to increase the next room from 30 - 49%, which is an opportunity to increase ownership of strategic partners or invite new partners. This is our opportunity," said Mr. Dung.

Expectations to bring FE Credit back to its golden age, not excluding the provision of digital asset services

Regarding FE Credit, this year VPBank aims to increase profits at a reasonable level. According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Vinh, FE Credit is continuing to consolidate and improve its apparatus, aiming for long-term sustainability, while closely managing disbursement to ensure effective operations.

The last 6 months of 2025 is an important time for FE Credit to make a breakthrough when the new loan portfolio will begin to be effective, while the old loan portfolio continues to shrink and face many difficulties.

“VPBank aims to maintain FE Credit’s profits at a reasonable level and fix the unit’s fundamental problems. The bank hopes to bring FE Credit’s profits back to the level of VND3,000-4,000 billion as in previous years,” said Mr. Vinh.

Regarding the Government's pilot policy of developing a crypto-asset market floor, VPBank CEO said that this is a field with many potential risks, but whether they want it or not, financial institutions as well as VPBank cannot stay out of it.

VPBank is ready to participate and is in the process of thorough evaluation, analysis, and contact with partners while waiting for approval from the competent authority. The bank said that it needs to carefully evaluate to provide digital asset services and will inform at the appropriate time.

Regarding the policy of establishing a life insurance company, VPBank's leaders said that the bank is operating under a corporate model, so the life insurance piece is indispensable.

In addition, if the bank only cooperates with other partners to distribute insurance, it will always be passive in terms of products, business models and especially customer management and care. Therefore, VPBank determines that it must be proactive in business sources, from products to customer files and exploitation processes.

In addition, life insurance and banking are closely linked in terms of business models as well as interactions in the customer ecosystem. With experience in operating OPES, the leaders believe that the life insurance company established here will be operated effectively.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/co-dong-de-nghi-mua-co-phieu-quy-chu-tich-hdqt-vpbank-neu-ly-do-tu-choi-d274692.html