FMO mulls $40m trade finance facility for Vietnam-based HDBank: DealStreetAsia

The proposed financing will give HDBank more capacity to grow its trade finance business, especially in the renewable energy space, FMO said.

The investment will be the first green trade finance transaction for the Netherlands-based financial institution. “With the proposed transaction, FMO meets its green ambitions and regains its foothold in the financial services space in Vietnam which is one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia,” it said.

Vietnam is amongst the top 10 polluted countries in the world, and HDBank has been active in rolling out green financing programmes in the country.

A mid-range lender with total assets of $9 billion as of June 2019, HDBank has a roughly 2 per cent market share in terms of system assets and deposits. 

The bank went public in early 2018 and currently has a market capitalisation of about $1.2 billion. Japan’s Credit Saison is a 49 per cent shareholder in the bank’s consumer finance arm, HD Saison.

HDBank is 13.34 per cent owned by Sovico Holdings, which runs businesses engaged in hydropower, aviation and real estate. Sovico is owned by budget carrier Vietjet’s chairwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao.

FMO had earlier committed $15 million to a Vietnam fund of Excelsior Capital Asia. Meanwhile, in the energy sector, the Dutch bank has invested in SPV Lakeside Energy in Pakistan, Berkeley Energy Commercial & Industrial and Acumen Fund.

FMO and the Asian Development Bank plan to jointly invest $60 million in the renewable business of local conglomerate Thanh Thanh Cong.
 

Source: DealStreetAsia