Vietnam ABBank boosts capital base by 17.8 pct

HANOI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Vietnam's An Binh Bank, 15 percent owned by Malaysia's top lender Maybank (MBBM.KL), said on Wednesday it has increased its capital base by 17.8 percent to 2.71 trillion dong ($164 million).

The Ho Chi Minh City-based bank finalised the sale of an extra 5 percent stake to Maybank on Wednesday, bringing the Malaysian bank's ownership to 15 percent and the proceeds were added to An Binh Bank's registered capital, it said in a statement.

It said Maybank has paid 1.58 trillion dong for the 15 percent stake in unlisted An Binh Bank, valuing the Vietnamese bank at nearly $1.1 billion. It is one of Vietnam's top 20 banks by assets.

An Binh Bank, also known as ABBank, said it would soon work with Maybank to expand its Vietnam's network, connect their automatic teller machines. Maybank will also help ABBank manage market risks and provide information technology solutions.

Partly-private ABBank has forecast its gross profit to more than double this year to 465 billion dong and raise its total assets by 32 percent to 22.7 trillion dong this year. ($1=16,513 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Anshuman Daga)