AsemconnectVietnam - TPBank contributed an additional VND75 billion and became the parent company of Viet Cat Fund; MB expects profit growth of 10% in 2024; ACB aims to increase profits by 10% and pay dividends of 25% in stocks and cash.

TPBank
Viet Cat Fund Management Joint Stock Company has just reported the results of the private placement of 7.5 million shares to strategic shareholders.
On January 30, 2024, Viet Cat Fund issued all 7.5 million shares at 10,000 VND/share, raising VND75 billion. In particular, Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank has purchased all 7.5 million shares, increasing its ownership from 0% to 75% of charter capital at Viet Cat Fund and officially becoming the parent company of Viet Cat Fund.
Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank) will be restricted from transferring within 1 year of shares just purchased in the issuance of Viet Cat Fund.
Thus, after the issuance, Viet Cat Fund's charter capital will increase from VND25 billion to VND100 billion.
According to research, Viet Cat Fund was established on January 25, 2008; Address at 11th floor, Doji Tower building, 5 Le Duan, Dien Bien ward, Ba Dinh district, Hanoi.
Regarding business activities, according to data from reporters of the Securities Investment Newspaper, in 2023, Viet Cat Fund recorded revenue of VND4.02 billion, down 35.2% compared to the same period, and the following profit Tax recorded a loss of VND1.47 billion compared to the same period profit of VND0.77 billion, a decrease of VND2.24 billion.
With losses in 2023, as of December 31, 2023, Viet Cat Fund's total accumulated profit is only VND0.38 billion.
In addition, also at the end of 2023, Viet Cat Fund's total assets increased by 5.8% compared to the beginning of the year, corresponding to an increase of VND1.44 billion, to VND26.3 billion. Of which, main assets were cash and cash equivalents recorded at VND12.13 billion, accounting for 46.2% of total assets; Short-term financial investments recorded VND10 billion, accounting for 38.1% of total assets; Short-term receivables recorded VND3.5 billion, accounting for 13.3% of total assets and other items.
Viet Cat Fund became better known to investors when at the 2022 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Joint Stock Company (HAGL Company, HAG code - HOSE stock exchange) on April 8, 2022, Mr. Doan Nguyen Duc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of HAGL at that time, announced a plan to privately issue 161.9 million shares at a price of 10,500 VND/share, raising VND1,700 billion.
Mr. Duc shared: "We need money to invest in expansion, we do not need consulting. In particular, the partners participating in the private placement are expected to be a securities company and Viet Cat Fund Management Company.”
However, on April 17, 2023, HAGL Company suddenly approved that it could not complete the private offering of 161.9 million shares due to stock price movements on the stock market not consistent with the offering price, leading to investors being offered the sale rejecting the offer.
By November 23, 2023, HAGL Company announced information about the plan to privately offer 130 million shares at a price of 10,000 VND/share, raising VND1,300 billion, implementation time in 2023 or 2024, after being approved by the State Securities Commission. Of which, Viet Cat Fund Management Joint Stock Company plans to buy 60 million shares, increasing its ownership from 0% to 5.67% of charter capital (becoming a major shareholder); LPBank Securities Joint Stock Company plans to buy 50 million shares, increasing its ownership from 0% to 4.73% of charter capital; and Mr. Nguyen Duc Quan Tung plans to buy 20 million shares, increasing ownership from 0% to 1.89% of charter capital.
However, later, HAGL Company said that Viet Cat Fund Management Joint Stock Company would not participate in the private offering.
Explaining the publication of false information about Viet Cat Fund, HAGL Company said this was a mistake because it did not receive a refusal to register to buy from Viet Cat Fund, along with errors in the process of information exchange between the parties, so the content announced on November 22, 2023 was recorded incorrectly.
By November 24, 2023, the Company has canceled and updated the list of investors expected to be offered private shares and Viet Cat Fund is no longer on the list of investors.
MB
That was shared by Mr. Luu Trung Thai, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank - MB (stock code MBB) at the Investors Conference, held on the afternoon of March 6, 2024.
MB Chairman said that in 2024, difficulties will still exist. We hope that bad debt will go sideways and go down. Weak demand means growth will slow down. Although foreign investment (FDI) is good, demand for personal credit (personal finance) is in a flat state. The industry's profit margin in general is declining in 2023. If MB can keep the sideways plan, it will be good. MB targets profit growth in 2024 at 10%.
Mr. Thai shared that in the first quarter of 2024, according to market rules, credit growth is not high (usually January increases, February and March usually decrease), MB can keep the increase in credit balance at a horizontal level.
Talking about the growth motivation of the banking industry in 2024, according to Dr. Dam Nhan Duc, Chief Economist of MB, comes from many factors. First of all, with a good macroeconomic foundation, businesses will be able to take advantage of this opportunity, with high credit growth rates. According to Mr. Duc, in 2023 the only motivation will be public investment, in 2024 it will come from export motivation, consumer demand has recovered. This will support the banking industry to grow better than in 2023.
Regarding MB's operations, in 2023, the Bank has maintained a stable and steady growth rate. Member companies grow sustainably and maintain market share, such as MB Securities Company (MBS), MB Insurance Company (MIC)... Group-wide profit of more than 26,300 billion VND, at the highest level ever since. Regarding asset quality, if viewed quarterly, MB has overcome the most difficult period, bad debts are well provisioned.
Also according to Mr. Duc, MB has certainty, consistency, stability..., but still has the determination to fight more in terms of "personality" of innovation and creativity, especially in the field of digital transformation, stemming from history begin.
From 2017 to 2024, MB's capitalization will grow 7 times, much higher than the VN-Index. However, MBB shares are still trading much cheaper than the market.
"People often say that cheap things are bad things, but with MB it's completely different," Mr. Duc emphasized.
Sharing at the investor meeting, Mr. Luu Hoai Son, Director of MB Planning & Marketing Department, said that in 2024, the Bank expects credit growth to be higher than the assigned level of 16% and above. Based on growth in the fourth quarter of 2023, MB expects profits to reach more than VND28,800 billion. MB's growth drivers in the period 2024 and the following years, MB expects to be based on 3 major growth drivers.
The first is from retail. If you look internally, MB has many favorable conditions to make this growth strategy reasonable. MB currently has more than 26 million customers, expected to reach 30 million by 2024. Customers using MB's most basic product, loans, have 453,000 customers and are growing well. This is a very hopeful point in the future.
Outstanding retail debt and outstanding loans to micro SME customers account for 51% of MB's total debt structure and the growth rate is still very good, which is the driving force to help MB grow very well in 3- The past 4 years. Currently, the number of customers interacting regularly on App and BizMB is very high, about 10-15% of loan transactions can be transferred on digital platforms and we hope to expand in 2024.
“Retail will help MB's CASA continue to grow in the near future. In the context of 2024 when credit institutions enter a new economic cycle, that is, lending interest rates decrease, the advantage of CASA and capital costs will help MB have good conditions to provide customers with low-cost loans. Reasonable fees while still ensuring high profits in the future," Mr. Son shared.
The second comes from digital transformation. In recent years, MB has invested heavily in digital transformation, connecting with the customer ecosystem across platforms, creating a good experience for customers. Thanks to digital transformation, the number of transactions has grown very high, but operating costs and staff costs for these transactions have remained the same.
The third growth driver is Group synergy. Currently, MB's ecosystem is a financial group with a full range of financial services, from securities, banking, insurance..., creating the fullest and largest endogenous motivation in the banking and finance industry. This has shown clear results through the growth of each member, for example, the number of MBS customers increased more than 3 times within 2 years.
“Besides the advantages, MB also identifies certain difficulties and challenges. The first is credit management. Currently, MB has implemented a multi-layer credit risk management model. Besides, the Bank also transformed its business model towards ESG to ensure sustainable development," Mr. Son said.
At the meeting, Mr. Thai also shared that it is expected that in 2024, MB will complete the plan to receive and transfer OceanBank.
ACB
ACB has just announced documents for the 2024 annual general meeting of shareholders scheduled to take place on April 4, with a profit plan of VND22,000 billion, an increase of 10% compared to the previous year.
ACB targets total assets to increase by 12% by the end of 2024, customer deposits and valuable papers to increase by 11% to VND593,779 billion. Customer loan growth was 14% reaching VND555,866 billion. ACB said that this is a credit growth level consistent with the market situation, while also complying with the level assigned by the State Bank. The bad debt ratio remains below 2%, this figure at the end of 2023 will be 1.21%.
Previously, by the end of 2023, overcoming market difficulties, ACB completed all business goals registered at the General Meeting of Shareholders, with credit growth of 17.9%, mobilization increased by 16.6%, profit exceeded 20 trillion, continuing to maintain the bad debt ratio among the lowest in the industry.
ACB's Board of Directors said that in 2024, the domestic economy will still face many difficulties and challenges when world demand has not recovered strongly. With the Government's solutions to remove difficulties in many markets such as real estate, corporate bonds... the economy in 2024 can recover. ACB expects the ability to soon restore production and business of businesses and the production and consumption needs of households.
ACB Bank also plans to pay dividends in 2023 from the retained profits of 2023 and remaining undivided profits from previous years, with VND19,886 billion. Accordingly, ACB's Board of Directors plans to pay dividends at a rate of 25%, of which 15% is in stocks and 10% in cash, corresponding to the use of retained profits of VND9,710 billion. This dividend rate is also expected to continue to be applied by the bank in 2024 with a corresponding capital use of VND11,166 billion.
With this dividend, ACB will increase its charter capital to VND44,666 billion, an additional VND5,800 billion, corresponding to more than 582 million additional shares issued. The expected time to complete the issuance plan to increase charter capital is the third quarter of 2024.
According to ACB, increasing charter capital is extremely necessary to increase medium and long-term capital for credit granting activities, government bond investments, and additional capital to invest in facilities and strategic projects and improving financial capacity.
N.Nga
Source: VITIC/Tinnhanhchungkhoan