The lender, Vietnam’s biggest listed private bank, was previously looking for capital, but now “we’re looking more for capabilities and especially when it comes to technology,” Lottner said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “15% is probably something we could actually come up with,” he added.

“There’s a lot of money coming in from Singapore, Japan and Korea,” and Techcombank is looking for companies which can help it “get into these trade corridors,” Lottner said. Foreign investors currently have a total stake of about 22% in the Hanoi-based bank, according to the CEO. Vietnam imposes a foreign ownership cap of 30% on banks, so Techcombank would need to see some shareholders sell, before it could offer the 15% stake.

Techcombank is also reaching out to a new insurance partner after discontinuing the partnership with Manulife Vietnam, Lottner said, adding that it is still “very, very early on the process,” and there will be more clarity over the next six months. 

Techcombank reported a pretax profit of 22.8 trillion dong (US$897.9 million, or RM4.01 billion) in the first nine months, up 33.5% from the same period last year, it said last month.

The lender had 14.8 million customers as of Sept 30, adding nearly 500,000 new customers during the third quarter, it said in October. About 57% of the quarter’s new customers were acquired digitally, with the rest joining through bank branches.

Techcombank’s total assets were at 927.1 trillion dong as of Sept 30, up 9% versus beginning of this year, it said. 

The lender targets a 2024 pretax profit of 27.1 trillion dong, 18% higher than last year. Lottner said Vietnam’s booming economy will give the bank “a lot of runway over the next couple of years, probably decade”.

Shares of Techcombank have risen more than 42% so far this year, outpacing the 8% advance in the benchmark VN Index. 

Uploaded by Liza Shireen Koshy