A total of 16,238 investors have registered to buy shares in the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), the country’s second-largest lender by assets.

BIDV shares much sought after 

Nearly 150 million BIDV shares have been registered for the auctioning in the initial public offering scheduled on December 28, surpassing the 66.2% of the bank’s total shares offered.

Of the total investors, 16,109 were individuals registered to purchase a combined 101.8 million worth of BIDV’s shares, while the 129 remaining investors were domestic and foreign institutions.

Tran Bac Ha, Chairman of BIDV’s Board of Directors, told the press on December 23, that the bank’s staff alone registered to buy 59.3 million shares, accounting for 70% of offered shares.

Ha said that despite the high demand, they have decided to maintain stock prices at VND18,500 (USD0.88) as they've announced. He hopes that share prices will rise much higher in the near future.

“We plan to list our shares on the Hochiminh Stock Exchange in June 2012, and expect that the shares will rise to between VND28,000 and VND30,000 (USD1.33-USD1.42), 50% higher than the IPO," he said.

Earlier on December 22, China Development Bank (CDB) signed a credit contract to lend USD200 million to BIDV over five years, which will help strengthen the BIDV's medium and long term capital.