Japanese firm eyes stake in ailing Vietnamese bank

By Anh Minh March 30, 2019 | 05:56 am PT

Vietnam wants to restructure Construction Bank. Photo acquired by VnExpress

Japan’s J Trust has expressed interest in acquiring a stake in Vietnam Construction Bank, one of three weakest state-owned banks in the country.

Nobiru Adachi, senior managing director and executive officer of finance firm J Trust, told Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue Friday that he wanted to restructure the Vietnam Construction Bank (CB).

J Trust will also support CB in terms of technology and financial operations, he added.

Hue responded that J Trust’s proposal was in line with the government’s wish for local or foreign investors to buy weak banks. The government wants to sell CB to an investor to restructure it, he added.

J Trust should discuss its proposal with the State Bank of Vietnam so that the deal could be presented to the Prime Minister for consideration, he added.

Hue said last year that the government would allow foreign investors to fully acquire weak banks that it had bought for zero dong. These banks are CB, Oceanbank and Global Petro Commercial Jsc Bank.

CB, formerly Trust Bank, was acquired by the government in 2015 and was given the new name. By 2017, it managed to recover over VND5.7 trillion ($245.73 million) of its bad debt.

J Trust engages in commercial banking services, retail financial services and debt collection services throughout Asia. It has experience in assisting struggling financial institutions and has successfully restructured weak banks in South Korea and Indonesia.

Vietnam has nine wholly-owned foreign banks, four state-owned banks and 31 joint-stock banks.