Vietnam's Techcombank plans broking, funds arms

By Ho Binh Minh

HANOI, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Vietnam's Techcombank, 15 percent owned by HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) (0005.HK), said on Wednesday it would expand its retail operations and open broking and funds management units this year.

The unlisted bank, whose full name is Technological and Commercial Bank, has secured initial approval from the central bank to establish two companies for stock broking and fund management, Chief Executive Officer Nguyen Duc Vinh said.

"Retail and support to small and medium enterprises are our two key areas for development this year," Vinh told reporters at the bank's Hanoi headquarters.

The bank plans to start broking and fund management operations in February, once it has secured licences from market watchdog the State Securities Commission, Vinh added.

The brokerage would have a registered capital of 300 billion dong and the fund management firm 40 billion dong, he said.

Techcombank, Vietnam's seventh-largest lender, would expand its retail business by adding nearly 50 outlets to its existing network of 128, Vinh said.

Financial markets are developing rapidly in communist Vietnam. The combined market capitalisation of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .VNI and the over-the-counter Hanoi Securities Trading Center .HASTCI more than doubled to nearly $31 billion in 2007, helped by an economy growing at almost 8.5 percent.

Deposits grew 36.5 percent last year in the country of 85 million people as the number of bank accounts rose to 8.3 million from 5 million a year earlier, central bank figures show.

Techcombank's deposits reached 34.57 trillion dong last year, 22 percent above its initial target for the year, while loans reached 20.2 trillion dong.

Its unaudited gross profit nearly doubled to 709 billion dong and total assets more than doubled to 39.56 trillion dong ($2.5 billion), the lender said in a statement.

Audited results would be available next month, Vinh said.

Techcombank expects assets to rise to 70 trillion dong at the end of 2008 with a doubling profit.

Techcombank is the first bank in Vietnam, the world's top robusta coffee producer, to provide broking services for coffee exporters to trade directly on the London futures market.

Vinh said the bank has now expanded the service to deal with rubber, soybean and metals. ($1=16,103 dong) (Editing by Lincoln Feast)