ANZ to increase stake in Saigon Securities

HANOI (Reuters) - Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ.AX) will buy more shares in Saigon Securities Inc SSI.HM, Vietnam's top brokerage, to raise its stake to 12.5 percent, the stock exchange said on Monday.

ANZ, which owns 10 percent of the Ho Chi Minh City-based brokerage, would buy 3,416,700 shares over the next two months starting on Tuesday, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .VNI said in a statement.

Shares in SSI were up 0.89 percent at 56,500 dong ($3.54) at 0309 GMT on Monday, valuing the brokerage at $479 million, the 11th-largest among 150 companies listed on the exchange.

Last Friday, SSI chief operating officer said the company would have to revise down its profit forecast for 2008 due to weak stock market conditions [nTKX002931].

The VN Index has lost 44 percent so far this year, partly caused by the Vietnam central bank's tightening of money supply in a series of measures to try and control double-digit inflation.

Japanese brokerage Daiwa Securities Group (8601.T) has a 1.25 percent stake in SSI.

Vietnam caps foreign ownership at 49 percent of a listed company while the ceiling for a listed bank is 30 percent.

($1=15,960 dong)

(Reporting by Ho Binh Minh, editing by Jacqueline Wong)