Ho Chi Minh City Development Bank (HDBank) recently announced that it
has got approval from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to acquire Societe
General Viet Finance (SGVF).
The bank said that the wholly French
owned company – one of the largest foreign owned consumer finance
companies in Vietnam – will become a subsidiary.
It expects
that being the first transaction of this kind in Vietnam , this will
encourage other institutions to carry out further acquisitions, in line
with the nation’s restructuring plans for the banking system.
“The
acquisition is in accordance with international trends and restructuring
plans advocated by the Government and SBV,” said the bank’s Deputy
General Director Le Thanh Trung.
The combination of a stably
developing bank and a well invested international financial institution
will help to bring customers convenient and safe products and services,
he said.
The whole SGVF network, including employees, business
partners and customers, will also be kept intact after the acquisition,
he added.
SGVF, owned by France ‘s Sociate General Co, was first
licenced by SBV in 2007 to operate in Vietnam . It is present in 42
provinces with roughly 1,100 employees and provides services to more
than 125,000 individual customers, through 300 partners, across the
country.-VNA