Xin chia buồn với cổ đông VCB - Lợi nhuận giảm 27%

Xin chia buồn với cổ đông VCB - Lợi nhuận giảm 27%

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=a_.DMLn3tXGc

Vietcombank''s Earnings Fall 27% as Global Rates Drop (Update2)

By Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen

Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Joint-Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, the first of the nation''s state-owned banks to sell shares, said profit last year dropped 27 percent because of declines in global interest rates.

The Hanoi-based bank, known as Vietcombank, said net income fell to 2.1 trillion dong ($131 million) from 2.88 trillion dong in 2006, according to Nguyen Thu Ha, deputy chief executive.

``Earnings from our deposits in international banks, which make up a large part of our total income, were significantly lower last year because of falling interest rates,'''' Ha said in a telephone interview from Hanoi today.

The U.S. may cut interest rates again, after 1 percentage point of reductions since September, as the odds of recession in the world''s largest economy increase on a jump in unemployment. The European Central Bank said yesterday it may lower interest rates to slow inflation.

Vietcombank, Vietnam''s third-biggest by assets, has overseas deposits mainly in dollars and euros, Nguyen Phuoc Thanh, chief executive officer, said in an interview in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec. 27.

The Vietnamese bank also had to pay more in Vietnam as domestic deposit rates rose, Thanh said. Dong overnight rates reached 6.8 percent yesterday, the highest in more than a month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The bank forecasts 2008 earnings will increase 40 percent.

Share Sale

Vietnam''s government is stepping up sales of state-owned enterprises this year as part of its two-decade-old process of Doi Moi, or economic renovation. Vietcombank plans to start trading on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange this year after a December share sale. In Vietnam, companies begin trading as late as several months after selling stock.

The Southeast Asian nation has only two publicly traded banks, Asia Commercial Bank and Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint-Stock Bank, both of which reported profit increased last year on stock and bond trading.

The government is targeting economic growth in excess of 9 percent this year. The banking industry will grow about twice that rate, estimated Deutsche Bank AG, Germany''s biggest bank. Only 8 percent of the 85 million Vietnamese have bank accounts.

The government last month raised 10.5 trillion dong by auctioning a 6.5 percent stake in Vietcombank, paving the way for other state-owned companies, including a brewer and a telephone company, to sell shares in 2008.

The bank''s total assets increased to more than 196 trillion dong as of Dec. 31, compared with 167 trillion dong in 2006, according to a release from the company. Assets are forecast to rise 20 percent this year, the bank said.

Earnings before tax declined to 2.75 trillion dong, from 3.89 trillion dong in 2006, according to the statement.

Outstanding loans increased 44 percent to 95 trillion dong. The bank reduced non-performing loans to 1.3 percent of total financing, from 1.6 percent in 2006.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen in Ho Chi Minh City at uyen1@bloomberg.net .