World Bank’s IFC divests stake in Vietnam’s ABBank

The International Financial Corporation (IFC), a private sector arm of the World Bank Group, on Wednesday off-loaded more than 84 million ABB shares of Vietnam’s An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBank), equivalent to an 8.2-percent stake in the bank.

The transaction is part of IFC’s divestment plan announced earlier this month, marking that IFC is no longer a major shareholder of ABBank.

Meanwhile, Maybank, Malaysia’s largest bank by assets, now becomes the major foreign shareholder of ABBank, holding a 16.4-percent stake in the latter.

Following IFC’s divestment from ABBank, IFC will reinvest its capital in many more Vietnamese businesses, including establishing partnership with banking and non-bank financial intermediaries to promote financial inclusion and climate finance.

As an ABBank strategic shareholder over the past 14 years, IFC has actively provided ABBank with financial support, medium and long-term loans, offered consulting services to and helped the Vietnamese commercial bank enhance its management capacity and pursue sustainable development goals.

IFC also shared its experience in the field during the implementation of ABBank projects to ensure the bank’s compliance with Basel III standards in risk management, ABBank said.

After IFC’s off-loading, ABBank will consider measures to further attract foreign capital to help fulfill its sustainable growth goals.

As for this year, ABBank is set to focus on conducting a major project to revise its business strategies in partnership with the global management consulting firm McKinsey.

ABBank, established in 1993, is trading its ABB shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM).

ABB closed in negative territory on Wednesday, down 6.59 percent against the previous session at VND8,500 (US$0.33), with more than 15.7 million shares changing hands.

Foreign investors net-sold over 84.8 million ABB shares.

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