Techcombank kicks off Vietnam's biggest IPO

Singapore

VIETNAM Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) launched on Friday the nation's biggest IPO that aims to raise as much as US$922 million and has attracted global funds as cornerstone investors, a term sheet of the deal showed.

Equity issues are booming in the Southeast Asian nation as it speeds up a privatisation drive.

Strong interest from foreign investors and local funds has pushed up the benchmark index by 19 per cent so far this year, making it one of Asia's best performers after rising nearly 50 per cent last year.

Techcombank, Vietnam's largest private sector bank, is offering shares in a price range of 120,000-128,000 Vietnamese dong per share (S$6.88-S$7.34) that will raise between US$864 million to US$922 million, according to the term sheet seen by Reuters.

Singapore wealth fund GIC, Fidelity Management and Research, and Dragon Capital are among funds coming in as cornerstone investors, the term sheet showed.

Techcombank's IPO will be bigger than Warburg Pincus-backed Vincom Retail's IPO last year, which raised about US$700 million.

Other big IPOs are on the anvil. In February, Reuters cited sources as saying Vingroup JSC, Vietnam's biggest property developer, had picked foreign banks for a planned US$1 billion listing of its residential property business.

Techcombank's IPO, which will be listed in Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, is expected to value the bank at about US$6.1 billion to US$6.5 billion, ranking it among the 10 biggest listed local companies.

Techcombank declined to comment on the equity offering.

The lender got a boost last month when Warburg Pincus agreed to invest more than US$370 million in it - the largest private equity investment in the South-east Asian nation.

A source with knowledge of the transaction said demand from cornerstone investors was so strong that about 76 per cent of the IPO was being allocated to such investors, much higher than in other IPOs.

He said investors were keen to put money in one of the fastest growing banks in South-east Asia while the country's strong economic growth had also attracted a range of international investors.

"Techcombank is focused on retail and fee income - this is a story that long-only funds are keen to play," said the source on condition of anonymity.

The 25-year-old bank provides a broad range of banking products and services to more than 5.4 million customers in Vietnam with an extensive network of 315 branches across the country.

Books for the IPO close on April 23 and Techcombank is expected to list on June 4. Morgan Stanley, Viet Capital Securities and Deutsche Bank are the joint global coordinators for the issue. REUTERS