Vietnam's Sacombank Q1 profit rises 44 pct

HANOI, April 8 (Reuters) - Sacombank STB.HM, Vietnam's sixth-largest lender, said its first-quarter gross profit jumped 44 percent from a year ago to 435 billion dong ($27.3 million) as loans soared 141 percent.

Total assets of the Ho Chi Minh City-based bank surged 135 percent at the end of March from a year earlier to 75.2 trillion dong ($4.7 billion), the bank said in a statement on Tuesday. ($1=15,958 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Jan Dahinten)