TPBank Expects a $1 Billion Market Value After Vietnam Listing

(Bloomberg) -- Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank expects its market capitalization to rise to least $1 billion in the fourth quarter after the scheduled listing this month, according to Chairman Do Minh Phu.

The Hanoi-based lender, known as TPBank, plans to sell about a 15 percent stake to investors via a private placement and issue 28 percent of dividend and bonus shares during the last three months of the year, Phu said in an interview in his office Monday. TPBank expects to raise its registered capital to 8.5 trillion dong ($372 million), up from its current 5.84 trillion dong, this year through the shares issuances, he said.

Tien Phong Bank will list 555 million shares at an initial price of 32,000 dong on April 19 on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, which will value the lender at about $781 million. The benchmark VN Index has risen 21 percent this year, the best performer in Asia, prompting companies to sell shares to the public or start trading on the exchanges.

“We think the market will continue rising,” Phu said. Vietnam's bank stocks have been the VN Index's best performing sector, rising 37 percent this year through March 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“As the market conditions are very favorable now and bank stocks are also running very well, listing at this time is good,” said Dang Tran Hai Dang, head of research at Vietinbank Securities JSC.

TPBank expects pretax profit to double this year to 2.2 trillion dong with total assets increasing 17 percent to 140 trillion dong, according to the chairman. The lender aims to keep non-performing loans below 1 percent this year, compared with the government's sector-wide target of below 3 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nguyen Kieu Giang in Hanoi at giang1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Divya Balji at dbalji1@bloomberg.net, John Boudreau

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