Vietnam's Sacombank says Jan profit soars 157 pct

HANOI, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Sacombank STB.HM, Vietnam's sixth-largest bank, said its gross profit soared 157 percent to 157 billion dong ($9.8 million) last month from a year earlier.

The Ho Chi Minh City-based bank said in a statement seen on Friday that its loans also jumped more than 150 percent to 40.3 trillion dong. It did not give a value for loans in January 2007.

Deposits rose 159 percent to 60.3 trillion dong.

Assets of Sacombank, or Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank as it is formally named, reached 69.92 trillion dong at the end of January or 10 percent above the end of 2007.

Shares in Sacombank eased 0.81 percent to end at 61,500 dong ($3.8) on Friday, valuing the lender at $1.69 billion, the largest of 146 firms on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .VNI.

Last month, the World Bank's International Finance Corp sold 5.95 million shares in Sacombank, cutting its ownership to 6.29 percent from 7.63 percent previously, the exchange said on Wednesday but gave no further details.

Before the sale, IFC, Dragon Capital and ANZ Bank (ANZ.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) owned a combined 30 percent of Sacombank, the ceiling for foreign ownership of listed banks in Vietnam. ($1=16,076 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; editing by Louise Heavens)