Vietnam's An Binh Bank says Jan-April net triples

HANOI, May 13 - Vietnam's An Binh Bank, 15 percent owned by Malaysia's top lender Maybank <MBBM.KL>, said its January-April net profit nearly tripled to 113.7 billion dong ($6.4 million).

Partly-private ABBank made a net profit of 26 billion dong in April alone, well above its 23 billion dong in combined net earnings for the first two months of the year, the Ho Chi Minh City-based lender said in a statement.

Outstanding loans at end-April were 6.89 trillion dong, the bank said without giving a comparative figure for last year.

ABBank has projected gross profit this year to jump to 400 billion dong from a gross profit of just 70.2 billion dong in 2008, when it suffered from high operating costs and losses from trading foreign currencies and securities.

In March, the lender said it would sell another 5 percent stake to Maybank this month, raising the latter's ownership to the ceiling rate of 20 percent. [ID:nHAN465258] ($1=17,760 dong)