Vietcombank

Vietcombank, Vietnam's largest partly private bank, said Friday it would make a maiden dividend payment at the end of December, even though it has asked for shareholder approval to halve its 2008 credit growth forecast.

Hanoi-based unlisted Vietcombank, or the Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, would pay an annualized dividend of 12 percent for a seven-month period ending this December, Chairman Nguyen Hoa Binh said in a statement.

Vietcombank completed the procedures to convert itself into a joint stock bank after it became the first state-run bank to conduct an initial public offering last December, raising US$652 million from selling 6.5 percent of its total shares.

The bank asked shareholders earlier this month to approve halving its credit growth projection this year to 15 percent from 29 percent, a sign that Vietcombank, which handles a quarter of Vietnam's trade payments, is feeling the effects of the global economic slowdown.

Vietcombank said it would pay the dividend in cash on December 25 for shareholders who registered by December 1. It gave no further details.

Vietnamese companies often pay dividends at the end of each half, but Vietcombank did not explain why it was launching a dividend program at this point.

Plans for a domestic listing in June 2008 have been delayed and Vietcombank has yet to give a new date.

Source: Reuters