Agribank to double lending growth by 2015

Agribank aims to expand its operations and double its credit growth by 2015 even as it undergoes a partial privatisation.

A government directive issued last week said Agribank could sell shares but stressed that the state will still own the majority of the stake.

Hanoi-based Agribank is now the only lender with full state ownership. Another three major state-run banks have conducted their initial public offering and two of them have been listed.

Agribank has projected annual credit growth of between 10 and 15 percent by 2015, after both lending and its total assets expanded around 7 percent in 2011. It also projected an annual profit growth of 10 percent by then while its assets would rise on par with annual lending growth, it said in a statement on its web site.

Last year, Agribank's loans to agriculture rose 15 percent from 2010 to nearly US$14.5 billion. It is a key lender for coffee and rice businesses, the commodities in which Vietnam ranks as the world's second-largest exporter.

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