The Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint-Stock Bank (Eximbank), a large shareholder of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (Sacombank), has urged the latter to re-elect the board of directors (BOD) and supervisory board to secure benefits of investors.
Eximbank holds 9.37% of Sacombank’s total chartered capital and is authorized with written documents by other shareholders owning a combined stake of 51%.
Eximbank has sent a document to Dang Van Thanh, chairman of Sacombank, to express its above point of view. The credit institution cites three reasons for its demand.
The first reason is that the shareholders structure at Sacombank has basically changed. Dragon Capital, ANZ and Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corp. (REE) have already divested stakes from the bank while new shareholders like Eximbank have joined it.
Another reason is Sacombank recently has carried out some big transactions in value that may hamper benefits of its shareholders. For instance, it has bought back 100 million treasury shares and has withdrawn its capital from Sacombank Securities Company (SBS).
The last one is, according to Eximbank, Sacombank’s operation performance in 2011 did not fare well in line with its scale when compared to other banks of the same scale.
Eximbank proposed Sacombank refer to prevailing regulations concerning nominating representatives as members in the board of directors and the board of controllers. These regulations consist of the Enterprise Law, the Government’s Decree 102/2010/ND-CP, the Credit Institution Law, and the Charter of Sacombank itself.
Under such regulations, shareholders or groups of shareholders owning over 10% to less than 20% of the total number of voting shares are entitled to nominate one candidate. Also, these rules specify that shareholders or groups of shareholders holding from 80% to below 90% of the total number of voting shares are allowed to recommend up to eight candidates.
Apart from the demand to make changes to the management, Eximbank also asked Sacombank to revise up this year’s targets before presenting it to the forthcoming general shareholders meeting. It requests Sacombank to raise the 2012 profit target to a minimum VND4.025 trillion, up at least 15% compared to the planned VND3.5 trillion.
Eximbank in the document clarifies “during the preparatory process for the general shareholders meeting, Sacombank is requested not to transfer its high value assets comprising the treasury stock it is holding.”
Meanwhile, Sacombank’s chairman Dang Van Thanh recently has confirmed to local media that “The board of directors of the term 2011-22015 had been voted by the general shareholders meeting and fulfilled the first term last year. The board had also got the approval from the central bank in accordance with the Credit Institution Law.”
The Saigon Times Daily
