Vietnam’s financial sector is experiencing significant activity in mergers and acquisitions, attracting substantial interest from international investors due to the country’s strong growth potential and its emerging status as a top investment hub in Southeast Asia. Notably, Thailand’s leading financial players, KASIKORNBANK Pcl (KBank) and SCBX Pcl, are close to concluding their bids for the purchase of Home Credit’s consumer finance division in Vietnam, as per a recent Bloomberg report.
Also in the competition is KB Kookmin Bank, part of South Korea’s KB Financial Group, which has progressed to the subsequent phase of the bidding. The assets up for acquisition are reportedly valued at approximately $700 million. Home Credit is looking to complete the divestment of its Vietnamese subsidiary by year’s end, but discussions are still underway. The potential buyers may choose to retract their bids, and Home Credit reserves the right to maintain ownership past the expected deadline.
In August, KBank disclosed its bold strategy to invest over $1 billion in Vietnam, aiming to reach 8.4 million customers by 2027. This was announced by KBank’s chairman, Pipit Aneaknithi, as a clear indication of the bank’s intention to scale up its presence in Vietnam.
“Out of the total investment, $735 million is earmarked for banking activities,” stated Aneaknithi. “The remainder will be distributed among our subsidiaries in the country – with $336 million going to KVision, our investment arm, and $7 million to KASIKORN Business-Technology Group [KBTG], our tech division.”
At present, KBank operates a representative office in Hanoi and has been running a branch in Ho Chi Minh City since 2021, which started with a capital of $80 million. “In May, we raised the branch’s capital to $285 million, positioning it as the foreign bank branch with the second-largest capital in Vietnam,” Aneaknithi added.
Concurrently, Dragon Capital, through a group of investment funds, has completed the purchase of an extra four million shares in Sacombank on November 6. In this transaction, CTBC Vietnam Equity Fund acquired three million shares and Vietnam Enterprise Investments bought one million shares. Following this deal, Dragon Capital Group Limited’s stake in Sacombank has increased to 114.08 million shares, which is equivalent to a 6.05 per cent share of the bank’s charter capital.