Eximbank has not sold treasury stocks because the market price is lower than expected.

Due to market prices not meeting expectations, Vietnam Export Import Commercial Bank (Eximbank) announced that it will not sell any of the 6.09 million treasury shares it had registered to hold.

Specifically, in a report submitted to the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange on the afternoon of February 20th, Vietnam Export Import Commercial Bank (Eximbank, stock code: EIB) stated that it did not sell any shares from January 15th to February 7th because the market price did not meet expectations compared to the bank's target selling price.

During this period, EIB shares experienced alternating periods of increases and decreases, with the share price fluctuating between VND 18,700 and VND 20,200. However, the stock did not close higher than the average target price of VND 20,199 announced by the bank in any trading session.

The plan to handle 6.09 million treasury shares was approved by Eximbank's general shareholders' meeting at its annual meeting in mid-April 2023. Eximbank had two options for handling treasury shares: selling them or using them as bonus shares. However, at that time, the Board of Directors stated that the bank had just completed a share issuance to increase its charter capital and also had plans and methods to further increase its charter capital, so choosing to sell the treasury shares was appropriate.

This is the entire block of shares that the bank repurchased as treasury stock between January 2nd and January 16th, 2014, and has held until now. In the transaction disclosure statement, the bank stated that the purpose of selling treasury stock was to supplement working capital. According to the plan, on each trading day, Eximbank will sell a minimum of 3% and a maximum of 10% of the trading volume registered with the State Securities Commission.

EIB shares closed the February 20th trading session at VND 18,650, down 0.8% from the reference price, extending a slight decline for the third consecutive session. However, the stock's liquidity is improving. Market capitalization, based on the current price, reached VND 32,467 billion.

In 2023, Eximbank reported a pre-tax profit of VND 2,720 billion, achieving 55% of its target for the year. According to Eximbank, this was due to factors such as: proactively reducing lending interest rates to support customers in accordance with the State Bank of Vietnam's policy to stimulate demand in the context of a difficult economy and to retain customers amidst the situation where other banks are luring customers to borrow capital.

By the end of 2023, Eximbank's total assets increased by 8.8%; capital mobilization increased by 6.5%; outstanding loans increased by 7.6%; service activities such as foreign exchange trading, cards, and remittances all showed growth compared to 2022; liquidity and operational safety indicators were always well controlled and complied with the regulations of the State Bank of Vietnam.

This year, Eximbank aims for a pre-tax profit of VND 5,180 billion. Total assets are expected to increase by 11%, reaching VND 223,500 billion, and deposits are projected to increase by 10.5%, reaching VND 175,000 billion.

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