Vietnam's Sacombank reduces 2008 share issue plan

HANOI, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Vietnam's partly private Sacombank STB.HM, 10 percent owned by ANZ (ANZ.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), has scaled back its capital raising plans for this year limiting them to one share issue due to be completed next month, the bank said.

Ho Chi Minh City-based Sacombank, Vietnam's sixth-largest lender by assets, had initially projected to boost its registered capital by 36 percent to 6.05 trillion dong ($367 million) within this year, from 4.45 trillion dong now.

The bank has won the central bank's approval for a new share issue of 66.73 million shares as dividend payment for 2007, which is due to be completed on Sept. 15 and which will bost Sacombank's capital base by 15 percent to 5.12 trillion dong.

But it said in a statement late on Friday its shareholders had approved its decision to drop plans to seek approval for the remainder of the originally planned capital increase, initially slated to include nearly 1.3 million shares to foreign investors.

Banks' capital increases often come in several phases, each needs approval from the central bank to avoid an oversupply of shares to the market.

Sacombank's total assets at the end of June stood at nearly 75 trillion dong, a rise of 16 percent from the end of last year.

Sacombank shares ended down 4.92 percent at 30,900 dong on Friday, underperforming the Vietnam's stock exchange's main index .VNI, which lost 1.57 percent before a market holiday on Sept. 1 and 2.

The World Bank's International Finance Corp, Dragon Capital and ANZ Bank together own 30 percent of Sacombank, the ceiling for foreign ownership of listed banks in Vietnam. ($1=16,495 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)