(PG Bank – Hanoi, April 24,2018) – On April 24, the Petrolimex Group Commercial Joint Stock Bank (PG Bank) held an abnormal Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to consult its shareholders about a plan to affiliate the bank with the HCM City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank). The practice would serve as a ground to ask for approval from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Petrolimex’s governing body, and relevant State bodies for PG Bank’s merging into HDBank.

Accordingly, the PG Bank shareholders approved contents of the Project and Contract to merge PG Bank into HDBank in 2018 with a high consensus. Soon after the meeting, the two sides would work together to finalise merger dossier to submit to competent authorities for approval at soonest. Shareholders of both PG Bank and HDBank agreed that the merger of PG Bank into HDBank would be a crucial starting point. Resolutions on the merger of PG Bank into HD Bank would take effect and be implemented upon the approval of the Petrolimex’s governing body and large shareholder, Ministry of Industry and Trade, and competent State bodies.

The restructuring of the banking system is a policy of the Government and State Bank of Vietnam to restructure and stabilise the economy and the banking system in a secure and sustainable manner. At the second session of the thirteen National Assembly, the then Governor of State Bank of Vietnam asserted that: “The restructuring of the banking system is a normal and regular practice, ensuring a sound and effective development of the banking system which is increasingly compatible with international practice, ensuring competition under non-stop changes worldwide, and creating a system of banks diversified in terms of ownership, scale and including banks that have potential to compete with those in the region and the world as well.”

Thus, the merger of PG Bank into HDBank is in line with guidance and policies of the Government and State Bank of Vietnam on reorganizing, rearranging and intensifying the efficiency of credit organisations through the merger and restructuring of Vietnam’s banking system, especially for healthy credit organisations that are merged based on a voluntary basis as PG Bank and HDBank. Concurrently, the merger with PG Bank offers HDBank a chance to become a larger bank in terms of size and financial strength, with improved capability to partly play its role in restructuring capital for main sectors and fields in the national industrialisation and modernisation, ensuring HDBank’s key role in the national socio-economic development assigned by the Party, Government and State.

Based on strategic cooperation between Petrolimex and HDBank, the voluntary merger of HDBank and PG Bank brings about benefits in various aspects:

• For the society and State:

o To contribute to strengthening and enhancing efficiency of Vietnam’s financial market.

o To contribute to the State budget through fiscal taxation as the profitability of the enterprise is accelerated.

o The post-merger financial capability of the financial institution will be improved, enabling the body to participate into and carry out the restructuring of credit organisations.

o To increase social activities thanks to strengthened financial capability and management vision changes.

• For shareholders: The merger will increase profitability that will bring about lots of surplus values for the bank’s shareholders after merger.

• For customers: All post-merger interests and obligations to customers will be inherited by the bank after merger. With stronger capital resources, the bank after merger will be able to provide customers with larger-sized and better quality services, especially the bank will have better capability to provide capital for the market.

The merger of PG Bank into HDBank will also contribute to further tightening and enhancing the cooperation among major shareholders of both banks, bringing benefits to all parties. The strategic cooperation among shareholders will improve the existing customer ecosystem of HDBank when it is able to get access to an additional number of more than 20 million individual customers, nearly 2,500 petrol stations and about 4,000 agencies of Petrolimex. Continuing to uphold PG Bank’s key services but due to limited operation scale and network, Petrolimex potential and advantages have not been fully utilised such as the implementation of financial and banking services at Petrolimex’s retail network. However, the bank will continue maintaining its leading position in trading foreign exchange, commodity derivatives and card services. As for Petrolimex, the cooperation will enable Petrolimex Aviation Fuel Joint Stock Company (PA) to provide fuel to Vietjet for all domestic and international flights; and other Petrolimex member companies including Petrolimex Joint Stock Insurance Company (PJICO), Petrolimex Petrochemical Corporation (PLC), Petrolimex Gas Corporation JSC (PGC) to provide services to HDBank and the bank’s member units.

With a strategic cooperation agreement with Petrolimex, the merger of PG Bank into HDBank will be a new step forward to soon reach development goals by 2021. It is expected that in 2018 and the following years, the positive effect from the strategic cooperation agreement with Petrolimex and the merger of PG Bank will help HDBank drastically increase its business efficiency, fetching great benefits for the bank, shareholders, partners, customers and labourers.

The merger of PG Bank into HDBank will also benefit customers as well as staff of both banks as the strengths of both banks and major shareholders will create a larger bank with higher competitiveness and ability to provide more diverse and better services to customers whilst bringing about numerous opportunities for the staff’s career development.

Further information:

PG Bank: Petrolimex Group Commercial Joint Stock Bank (PG Bank), formerly known as Dong Thap Muoi Rural Joint Stock Bank, was established on November 13, 1993 with initial charter capital of VND700 million (equal to US$31,000 at current exchange rate). After almost 25 years of operation, PG Bank has grown well and gradually built trust in customers. Of note, with the participation of strategic shareholder - the Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) – PG Bank has witnessed big leaps forward in terms of operation scale and efficiency. The transformation into an urban joint stock commercial bank model under the new name of PG Bank was a significant milestone, creating a premise for PG Bank to catch up with the national economy’s rapid development, and to take steady steps to become a leading multipurpose commercial bank in Vietnam.

HDBank: As one of the leading commercial joint stock banks in Vietnam which has been operating in Vietnam for 28 years and looking forward to reaching out to the world, HDBank has strong financial capabilities and state-of-the-art technologies HDBank, offering a wide variety of financial services to retail customers, corporations and investors. HDBank has completed the model of modern transaction points to provide customers and social community with professional and user-friendly customer services through the message of « Committed to your best returns ». Thanks to the united strength from Dai A Bank and SGVF- currently HD SAISON, HDBank’s total assets amounted to VND189 trillion ($8.3 billion) billion by December 31, 2017 with charter capital of VND9.8 trillion ($430 million) and employees of over 13,000. The bank has established 240 branches/banking units and over 11,000 SIPs nationwide and is prepared to open branches abroad. In the international market, HDBank has set up correspondent relationship with over 7,500 branches and banks in more than 150 countries and territories. HDBank has been bestowed with various titles and awards by prestigious organisations at home and abroad.

HDBank is growing constantly and comprehensively and reaching out to the world.

For further details, please contact: Ms Nguyen Thi Huyen Tram – Marketing and Network Development Division - PG Bank – 16th Floor, 23, 24, Mipec Building, 229 Tay Son, Dong Da District, Hanoi. Telephone: (+84 24) 6281-1298 (ext: 202) or Mobile: 0984.852.722, and Email:tramnth.pgbank@petrolimex.com.vn,-Web: www.pgbank.com.vn