MSB Bank shareholders do not approve the plan to merge with another bank

At the 2023 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) of Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MSB) on April 21, an important content that needs to be approved by shareholders is the policy of merging with another bank.

However, the results showed that only over 56% of voting shares approved the merger plan, lower than the required 65%. Therefore, this proposal was not approved by the General Meeting of Shareholders.

Previously, according to the documents of the 2023 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, MSB, chaired by Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, submitted a proposal to ask shareholders for their opinions on merging with another credit institution to increase its scale.

Accordingly, implementing the policy of the Government and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on restructuring the system of credit institutions, associated with handling bad debts, improving credit quality, and ensuring healthy banking operations, MSB will accept the merger of a credit institution.

Mr. Tran Anh Tuan's MSB said that the bank has experience in successfully merging Mekong Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (MDB) in 2015 and acquiring Textile Finance Company, as well as supporting people's credit funds under the direction of the State Bank.

*MSB Bank shareholders do not approve the plan to merge with another bank. (Photo: MSB)*

Accordingly, MSB will submit to the General Meeting of Shareholders for approval the merger of a commercial bank operating normally in Vietnam with criteria of total assets and equity at the average level in the market, and good credit quality.

The purpose of the merger is to take advantage of the network system, human resources and business activities of the acquiring bank to increase the scale of MSB's operations and successfully implement the bank's digitalization strategy.

Sharing with the press later, MSB leaders revealed the possibility of merging with Petrolimex Commercial Joint Stock Bank (PGBank).

The merger of MSB Bank with PGBank has been talked about for many years in the context of MSB's leadership moving to PGB.

Bank mergers have become hot again in recent years as the State Bank continues to restructure the credit institution system, associated with handling bad debts, improving credit quality, and making banking operations healthy.

The PGBank merger story was mentioned in the context that PGBank is a bank with the smallest charter capital in the system and the major shareholder Petrolimex Petroleum Group divested 40% of PGB shares.

Meanwhile, MSB Bank has a lot of real estate loans, projects spread from the South to the North and has the need to expand further. There are times when MSB has to brake on real estate loans.

In 2022, MSB's credit growth is expected to be nearly 18.8%, a high figure compared to the market average. Previously, MSB's credit had increased even more strongly. This means that credit at MSB has increased rapidly.

On the contrary, PGBank still has a lot of room for credit growth. In 2022, PGBank's credit growth will only increase by 5.6%. Previous years also increased quite low.

However, later, speaking with VietNamNet , PGBank Chairman Nguyen Quang Dinh denied merging with MSB Bank, affirming that "PGBank has no plans to merge".

Mr. Tran Anh Tuan's MSB Bank aims to reach VND6,300 billion in pre-tax profit in 2023, up 9% compared to 2022. Total assets are expected to increase by 8% to VND230,000 billion; outstanding credit balance increases by 15% to VND141,700 billion; capital mobilization increases by 10% to VND142,000 billion. The bad debt ratio is controlled below 3%. MSN is expected not to pay dividends or bonus shares.

4 investors spend 2,500 billion to own 40% of PGBank shares

In the auction on April 7, Petrolimex sold 120 million PGB shares of Petrolimex Joint Stock Commercial Bank. The auction results showed that 4 investors won the bid, including 3 institutional investors and 1 individual investor, with the lowest winning price of VND21,400/share and the highest winning price of VND21,500/share, the average winning price was VND21,400/share. Petrolimex earned VND2,568 billion.

The winning bid price is much lower than the highest price of VND 25,600/share traded on the morning of April 7 on the Upcom floor.

According to the financial report, Petrolimex's (PLX) investment in PGBank has an original cost of VND1,078 billion.

Source