Vietnam banks seek foreign investors as Eximbank drops charter cap

Vietnam’s Eximbank has removed a charter restriction limiting foreign ownership to 6 per cent, as several lenders pursue overseas investors and prepare share offerings. Shareholders approved the change at an extraordinary meeting on October 14, 2026.

Eximbank will instead apply Article 63 of the Law on Credit Institutions to foreign shareholdings. Chairman Nguyen Le Quoc Anh said the State Bank of Vietnam had requested the adjustment, which would leave shareholder rights unaffected. He also said it would support a higher valuation for the bank.

At VPBank, shareholders approved a private placement exceeding 624.3 million shares to a foreign investor at the bank’s April 2026 annual meeting. Pricing is subject to negotiation but cannot fall below the latest quarterly consolidated book value per share. The issuance is expected in the third or fourth quarter of 2026.

Reuters reported in late September that Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group wanted to raise its VPBank holding to 20 per cent, but pricing remained unresolved. SMBC paid approximately US$1.5 billion for a 15 per cent holding in 2023. Reuters said the Japanese side was considering market purchases rather than a private placement.

Separately, Reuters reported that BNP Paribas and KB Kookmin Bank were each negotiating a potential strategic stake of at least 15 per cent in Techcombank. The reported transaction value was approximately US$2 billion; the parties had not commented.

HDBank has also announced plans for a private placement of up to 700 million shares to professional securities investors from Vietnam and overseas. HDBank, MB and VPBank are among lenders eligible for a foreign ownership ceiling of 49 per cent under a mechanism linked to restructuring weak banks.