State-owned mobile network operator Mobifone will offload its holding of 38.95 million shares in two joint stock commercial banks in February.

Mobifone will offload its holding of 38.95 million shares in SeABank and TPBank next month. ( Photo Mobifone)

The Hanoi Stock Exchange has announced that it will conduct two auctions of the shares of SeABank and TPBank held by Mobifone on February 7.

At 8.30am on that day, Mobifone will auction more than 33.4 million SeABank shares, equal to 6.11 percent of the bank’s charter capital. With a starting price of 9,600 VND (42 US cents) per share, if successfully auctioned, Mobifone will gain more than 320 billion VND (14.1 million USD) and no longer be a shareholder of SeABank.

Mobifone is currently the third-largest shareholder in SeABank, after Société Générale and Phu My Investment Co, which hold 19.52 percent and 11.55 percent of the bank’s charter capital, respectively.

At 10am on the same day, Mobifone will auction more than 5.55 million TPBank shares, or 1 percent of the bank’s charter capital. At a starting price of 12,800 VND (56 US cents) per share, Mobifone is expected to gain at least 70 billion VND (3.1 million USD) and cut its stake in the bank to 4.76 percent.

The divestment from the two banks is in line with Mobifone’s policy of divesting investments from its non-core business lines.

This is the second round of Mobifone’s programme of capital withdrawal from TPBank and SeABank. In April, 2017, MobiFone failed to sell shares of SeABank as no bidders showed interest. It could sell just 61 percent of the offering of more than 14.28 million TPBank shares. Industry insiders attributed the failure to tepid investor sentiments.

According to experts, the auctions of the shares will test the local stock market, which has jumped over 50 percent in the past 12 months, supported by local and foreign inflows and the country’s stellar economic performance in 2017.

TPBank and SeABank shares are priced at some 26,000 VND and 14,000 VND each in the OTC market. Finish fund PN Elite Fund bought a 4.99 percent stake of TPBank in December 2017 for nearly 40 million USD, valuing the bank’s shares at 30,000 VND each. - VNA