Mayer Brown JSM has represented Standard Chartered Bank subsidiaries Standard Chartered APR and Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) on their exit from Vietnam’s Asia Commercial Bank (ACB).
The deal, estimated at $263 million, involves the sale of all 154 million of the two companies’ shares, amounting to 15 percent of ACB’s capital.
Standard Chartered APR sold its 8.75 percent stake in ACB to Estes Investment and Sather Gate Investment, while Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) sold its 6.25 percent stake to Boardwalk South, Whistler Investments and Estes Investment.
Standard Chartered acquired 8.56 percent of ACB in 2005, increasing that stake to 15 per cent in July 2008.
The StanChart exit from ACB continues a recent trend of foreign banks selling their stakes in Vietnamese lenders, said publication Deal Street Asia. Recently, BNP Paribas sold its entire stake in Orient Commercial Bank (OCB), while in 2017, ANZ sold its Vietnam retail banking operations to South Korea’s Shinhan Bank, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia sold its Ho Chi Minh City branch to VIB. Additionally, HSBC has been reported to be planning to exit Techcombank.
The Mayer Brown JSM team was led by Ho Chi Minh City-based corporate and securities partner David Harrison and included Hanoi partner Hoang Anh Nguyen.
