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Standard Chartered offloads entire stake in Vietnam’s ACB

The British bank previously held a 15 percent stake in ACB following two share acquisitions in 2005 and 2008

By Tuoi Tre News January 17, 2018, 23:03 GMT+7

British bank Standard Chartered has transferred its entire holding in Asia Commercial Bank, commonly known as ACB, wrapping up a 12-year relationship with one of Vietnam’s largest private banks.

Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited and its subsidiary, Standard Chartered APR Limited, have offloaded a total of 154 million shares of ABC, making a complete exit from the Vietnamese bank.

Standard Chartered APR Limited transferred 89.9 million, or 8.75 percent of ACB’s capital, to Estes Investment Ltd and Sather Gate Investment Ltd, the Vietnam News Agency said, citing an announcement by the Vietnam Depository Securities Center.

Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited sold 64.2 million shares, or a 6.25 percent stake, to three investment companies, Boardwalk South Ltd, Whistler Investment Ltd and Estes Investment Ltd.

As these four companies are also foreign entities, the current foreign ownership of ACB remains unchanged following the Standard Chartered exit.

The disinvestment came as no surprise, with the British bank having already signaled plans to remove its representative from the ACB board of directors and to withdraw its 15 percent stake in the Vietnamese lender in March 2016.

The disinvestment is part of the British lender’s bigger plan to withdraw from the Asian market.

At an ACB shareholder meeting in April last year, representatives from both Standard Chartered Bank and ACB told stakeholders that the Vietnamese lender no longer needed support from the British bank as it could ‘walk alone.’

The Standard Chartered representative, Andrew Colin Vallis, officially left ACB in November 2017.

In 2005 Standard Chartered Bank acquired 8.56 percent of ACB for US$22 million before buying another 6.16 percent stake in 2008.

As of August 2017, ACB reported total assets worth VND100 trillion ($4.41 billion), according to Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper.