Vietnam's ACB divests 2 other banks of $216-M investments

Bank investments withrawn by another bank.

Companies related to Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) have withdrawn some VND4.5 trillion or $215.9 million worth of capital in Kienlong Bank and Eximbank.

This was revealed by Tran Hung Huy, chairman of ACB’s board of directors.

As the bank has realized that its investment policies are on the wrong track, the divestment from the banking sector is not purely due to the profitability issue, but it is an investment strategy adjustment, he added.

The bank's foreign exchange and gold trading activities brought in a VND1.144 trillion net loss in the third quarter and a 9-month loss of VND1.251 trillion.

ACB only lost VND187 billion in foreign exchange and gold trading activities in the same period last year.

With the loss, ACB’s pre-tax profit in the first 9 months of year was only VND1.187 trillion.

According to Hung, the losses stem from the fact that the bank had to buy gold in accordance with the regulation of the State Bank of Vietnam to offset the gold sourced from its gold reserve for lending.

The higher local gold price also contributed to the losses.

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