Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnamese banks are still attractive to foreigninvestors thanks to the country’s economy and strong resilience tounprecedented difficulties and challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With Fitch Ratings raising the overall outlook for Vietnam from"Stable" to "Positive", several Vietnamese banks have alsobeen rated positive by the international rating agency. The rating hasconfirmed the strength of Vietnamese banks in adapting and maintainingstability even amid difficult times.

Despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic, Vietnam is still considered abright spot in the global economy. According to a recent analysis, AsianDevelopment Bank assessed that Vietnam's economy would grow strongly this yearat 6.7 percent and 7 percent in 2022 despite the resurgence of COVID-19.

Many Vietnamese banks have also become more active in looking for foreignpartners with an aim to realise their set goals and strategies.

VPBank in April signed an agreement to sell a 49 percent stake in FE Credit toJapan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Finance Group (SMFG) in a transaction that values thenon-bank lender at 2.8 billion USD.

Through this transaction, FE Credit is expected to receive support in capitalresources, management capacity and experience in the consumer finance sector inAsia from SMBC Group, especially SMBCCF - a leading consumer finance company inthe Japanese market.

At the same time, this transaction will add a large amount of capital toVPBank, contributing to enhancing the bank's financial potential to capture newinvestment opportunities in the market.

At SHB, to find and select foreign investors who can support and bring the bestbenefits to the bank as well as its shareholders and customers, the SHB’sgeneral meeting of shareholders recently approved fixing the foreign ownershiprate of 10 percent to find and select strategic partners. The bank alsoapproved the ownership ratio of foreign strategic investors at the bank to benot more than 20 percent of charter capital.

Nguyen Van Le, General Director of SHB, said there were now several financialgroups, banks and large investment funds in the world that wanted to becomeinvestors in SHB.

SHB also planned to issue international bonds with a total value of 500 millionUSD with a term of 3-5 years. According to Le, for shareholders, the issuanceof bonds to the international market not only increases profit margins and addsvalue to shareholders through the dividend plan, but also contributes toimproving the value of each shareholder in the long run./.