Vietnam’s VPBank is near US$1.4 billion stake sale to Japan's SMFG unit

HANOI, March 11 (Bloomberg): Vietnam Prosperity JSC Bank is in the final stages of a deal to sell a 15% stake to Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. for about US$1.4 billion, according to people familiar with the transaction.

The lender known as VPBank will sell more than 1 billion shares to SMBC Consumer Finance Co., a unit of Sumitomo Mitsui, for 32,000 dong (US$1.35) to 33,000 dong each, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The deal is expected to be signed later this month.