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Mar 13, 2018 / 10:52

Lotte Card completes takeover of TechcomFinance

Vietnamese lender Techcombank has completed transferring its entire stake in its financial arm TechcomFinance to Lotte Card, a subsidiary of South Korea`s Lotte Group at a ceremony on March 12.

The move is expected to help Techcombank refocus on its business core and add to the bank's long-term growth, said the bank's chairman Ho Anh Hung at the shareholders' meeting on March 3. 
 
The move is expected to help Techcombank refocus on its business core.
The move is expected to help Techcombank refocus on its business core.
On January 19, the State Bank of Vietnam has green-lighted the deal, which is reportedly worth KRW87.5 billion (US$82.2 million), nearly 3 times higher than TechcomFinance's charter capital of VND600 billion (US$26.4 million).

TechcomFinance was formed in 2015 when Techcombank acquired 100% of the shares of Vietnam Chemical Finance as the country restructured state-owned Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem). Vinachem was initially the parent group of the finance company with a 37% holding, while Techcombank was a founding shareholder with 10%.

TechcomFinance's revenue in 2017 was estimated at VND28.7 billion (US$1.2 million) by the firm's financial report released on February 28, while total expenses reached VND7.1 billion (US$313,000). 

Consequently, the firm's pretax-profit accounted for VND22.5 billion (US$992,250).

Established in 1993, Techcombank is one of the largest private sector joint stock commercial banks in Vietnam in terms of total operating income and pre-tax profit as of 2017, and one of the most profitable banks in Asia, stated the Vietnamese lender. Moody's also gave Techcombank one of the highest ratings among Vietnamese private joint stock banks.

In 2017, Techcombank achieved a total operating income of VND16.1 trillion and a pre-tax profit of VND8.5 trillion (US$708 million and US$373 million, respectively), according to the bank's financial statement. Techcombank had industry leading profitability in 2017 with return on average equity of 28.0% and return on average assets of 2.7%.
 
Lotte Card, founded in December 2002, provides financial services like cash-lending, credit cards, and instalment payment services, which was licensed by American Express and Lotte Department Store.