Vietnam Habubank plan to slow lending growth

HANOI, March 17 (Reuters) - Vietnam's Habubank said on Monday it would slow its lending growth to 29.5 percent this year from 57 percent in 2007 to cope with government steps to control double-digit inflation.

The unlisted, Hanoi-based bank, also known as Hanoi Building Bank, said in a statement it would expand lending to 12.2 trillion dong ($762 million) this year and keep bad debts below 2 percent.

The bank, 10 percent owned by Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), plans to raise its assets to 30 trillion dong from 23.5 trillion dong last year when deposits more than doubled to 19.9 trillion dong, it said.

Habubank expected a gross profit of 650 billion dong in 2008, the statement said without giving a comparison for last year.

"Habubank is ready for the year 2008 with difficulties from the government tightening monetary policies to reduce inflation and also the fiercer competition in the financial and banking sector," it said.

The central bank has announced measures such as raising interest rates and reserves that banks have to put aside to combat inflation.

It also planned to limit the country's credit growth to 30 percent this year after loans jumped nearly 38 percent last year.

Habubank, the country's 11th largest partly private lender by assets, plans to list on the domestic market in the the third or the fourth quarter, chief executive Bui Thi Mai told Reuters in an interview in January [ID:nHAN28657].

Vietnam has 35 partly private banks but so far only two of them, Sacombank STB.HM and ACB ACB.HN, have listed.

The central bank has given initial approval for the establishment of nine domestic banks and two wholly foreign-owned banks expected to heat up competition. ($1=16,020 dong) > FACTBOX on measures to control inflation......[ID:nHAN173054] > TABLE-Vietnam banks' assets, registered capital[ID:nHAN89283] (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Michael Battye)