Top Vietnam banks eye merger in 5 years

Vietnam's Eximbank and Sacombank will sign a cooperation agreement to merge in the next 3-5 years.

Eximbank is now a major shareholder of Sacombank with 9.73 percent.

The banks are the second and fifth largest commercial banks in Vietnam in terms of assets with Eximbanks's VND160 trillion ($7.68 billion) and Sacombank's VND147 trillion ($7 billion) as of the end of Q3/2012.

Eximbank and Sacombank have a charter capital of VND12.355 trillion and VND 10.74 trillion, respectively.

With the merger, the new bank may be the biggest commercial bank in Vietnam with over VND307 trillion in assets, overshadowing Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank with VND255.87 trillion.

Meanwhile, it may become the fifth largest Vietnamese financial institution in terms of assets after Agribank (VND561.25 trillion), BIDV (VND44.63 trillion), Vietinbank (VND4.4.87 trillion) and Vietcombank (VND391.66

trillion).

In the meantime, the two banks will cooperate in the implementation of some financial services including

offering co-financing and entrusted loans. They will also offer the credit limit on the interbank market to

support each other in the optimization of their capital flows, and timely support for liquidity needs.

The credit limit, the term and interest rate policies will be flexibly applied to adapt to the actual conditions of each party in each period.

The two sides will also support each other in foreign exchange and gold trading in order to meet the customer's needs under the provisions of the State Bank of Vietnam.

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