This is considered quite high compared to the prices of other bank shares listed on stock markets, and is behind only Vietcombank, VPBank and ACB.

The listing, which is advised by Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI), will value the lender at around VND32.4 trillion (US$1.43 billion), making it one of the 20 biggest companies by market capitalisation on HoSE.

With an allowed trading band of 20% on each side of the reference price on opening day, HDB can potentially soar to VND39,600 on listing.

HDB is currently one of the most favoured stocks in the over-the-counter (OTC) market, with its price rising consistently to occasionally reach VND31,000.

Since December 14, 2017, it has ceased to trade on the OTC to prepare for the listing.

On December 22, 2017, HDBank raised US$300 million in an initial public offering (IPO) after selling around 21.5% of its shares at VND32,000 based on book building.

The IPO got an overwhelming response from 76 foreign investors, who had registered to buy three times the number of shares on offer.

Among them were Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG, Japan’s Credit Saison Co, VinaCapital and JP Morgan Vietnam Opportunities Fund, who each own not more than 3%.

Earlier the lender had issued around 98 million shares to existing shareholders, raising VND3.2 trillion.

Self-made billionaire, founder and chairwoman of private budget airline Vietjet Air, and deputy chairwoman of the bank, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, bought more than 17.6 million shares then.

More than 38.5 million shares were sold to Sovico Holdings, which owns both the bank and the airline.

After the issuance, the bank’s charter capital rose to VND9.8 trillion.

It also seeks to issue 20 million shares to its employees some time in the first quarter of 2018 at par to increase its capital to VND10 trillion.

HDBank merged with Dai A Bank in 2013 and acquired France’s Société Générale Viet Finance the same year. The latter deal helped the bank tie up with a Japanese partner to create a finance company called HD Saison that currently has more than 6,000 counters nationwide.

HDBank expected to increase pre-tax profit by nearly 110% in 2017 to VND2.4 trillion.