Vietnam Techcombank's 2007 assets soar to $2.3 bln

HANOI, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Vietnam's Technological and Commercial Bank, 15 percent owned by HSBC Holdings Plc. (HSBA.L) (0005.HK), estimates its assets more than doubled this year to 37 trillion dong ($2.3 billion) from 2006.

The unlisted bank, also known as Techcombank, would earn a gross profit of 700 billion dong this year, compared with 357 trillion dong last year, the central bank-run Banking Times newspaper quoted the bank on Thursday as saying.

The Hanoi-based bank, Vietnam's seventh-largest lender, had assets of 17.33 trillion dong at the end of last year. It did not give any net profit estimate for 2007.

Techcombank is the first in Vietnam to provide broking services for coffee exporters to trade directly on the London robusta futures market. Vietnam is the world's largest producer of the variety. ($1=16,113 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Michael Battye)