Vietnam’s VP bank is set to sell 15% stake to Japan’s SMFG unit

The deal, expected to be signed this month, is valued at $1.4 billion

Vietnam Prosperity Bank plans to sell more than 1 billion shares to SMBC Consumer Finance. Reuters

Vietnam Prosperity Bank is in the final stages of a deal to sell a 15 per cent stake to Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group for about $1.4 billion, sources said.

The lender known as VPBank will sell more than 1 billion shares to SMBC Consumer Finance, a unit of Sumitomo Mitsui, for 32,000 dong ($1.35) to 33,000 dong each, the sources said. The deal is expected to be signed this month.

VPBank is one of the largest private banks in Vietnam, with total assets of more than 631 trillion dong at the end of December. The business ranges across retail, corporate, consumer finance and wealth management operations.

Japan’s leading banks are investing billions of dollars in Asia to provide services to the region’s rapidly expanding middle class. In November, Sumitomo Mitsui agreed to buy an additional stake in Philippines-based Rizal Commercial Banking for about $460 million.

Shares of Hanoi-based VPBank have risen just over 2 per cent this year, valuing the lender at around $5.2 billion and making it the fourth-largest in the country by market value. Net income was up 55.6 per cent to 18.2 trillion dong last year.

The bank has worked on the plan to sell the 15 per cent stake to an investor since 2021 and targeted completion of the sale last year. Luu Thi Thao, standing deputy chief executive of VPBank, has said the proceeds would help the lender replenish capital, news website VietnamFinance reported last month.

In a Bloomberg interview in January, Sumitomo Mitsui’s chief executive Jun Ohta said the company was discussing a capital tie-up with VPBank, building on an alliance.

It had earlier acquired a 49 per cent stake in Vietnamese consumer lender FE Credit from VPBank.

A VPBank spokesman declined to comment on the possible deal, while Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and SMBC Consumer Finance could not be reached for comment.