On 15 October 2026, Krungsri, the Thai bank owned by Japan's MUFG, completed payment of the full transfer price for its SHBFinance shares to SHB.CafeF The consumer finance company now operates as SFinance. For anyone holding SHB stock, the more relevant line came the same day. At an investor meeting, Ngo Thu Ha, General Director of Saigon - Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB), said the bank expects to book a profit from the deal in the fourth quarter of this year.Thanh Niên
That gain is a one-off, and nobody has yet disclosed how large it is. To see where it comes from and why it lands in Q4, we need to go back to the start of the deal.
August 2021: a two-stage contract
In August 2021, SHB and Krungsri signed a contract to transfer 100% of SHBFinance's charter capital in two stages.Thanh Niên That structure set the rhythm for everything that followed: SHB sold half first, and under the original agreement the remaining 50% would be transferred after three years.Mekong ASEAN
SHB has never officially disclosed the contract value. The figure most often cited comes from the buyer. According to CafeLand's 2023 report, a Krungsri representative said the bank would pay nearly USD 156 million, equal to more than VND 3,600 billion for the whole deal.CafeLand As of September 2026, CafeF was still using an estimate of about VND 3,600 billion.CafeF This is a press estimate built on the buyer's statement, not a number from the contract.
May 2023: the first half changes hands
In May 2023, SHB completed the transfer of 50% of SHBFinance's charter capital to Krungsri.Thanh Niên At the same time, SHBFinance moved from a single-member to a two-or-more-member limited liability finance company, on a State Bank of Vietnam decision. That change of legal form was the precondition for the company to have two owners.
On the money, CafeLand halved the figure of more than VND 3,600 billion and calculated that SHB received about VND 1,800 billion in the first tranche.CafeLand That number should be read for what it is: the newspaper's arithmetic, not an amount SHB reported.
November 2024: the buyer asks to move early
The original schedule put the second half around 2026. Krungsri asked to buy earlier, and on 5 November 2024 SHB announced a resolution approving the transfer of the remaining 50% at that request.Tạp chí Công Thương
A note on dates. Some 2026 articles place this milestone on 5 November 2025, but the Tạp chí Công Thương report was published on 5 November 2024 and describes the resolution as just announced, so November 2024 is the better-supported date. The early-sale decision brought the end of the deal closer, yet it still took nearly two years from resolution to completion, because what remained was licensing.
July 2026: a licence for the new owner
For Krungsri to hold 100%, SHBFinance had to switch back to a single-member form. On 10 July 2026, the State Bank of Vietnam issued Licence No. 43/GP-NHNN establishing SFinance Finance Company, wholly owned by Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri's formal name), and on the same day issued a decision converting the legal form of the former finance company.CafeF The charter capital stated in the licence is VND 1,000 billion.
With the licence in hand, the two sides finished the paperwork to transfer the remaining 50% in mid-July.Thanh Niên Ms Ha also said the transfer was completed between May and July 2026. At that point, the plan reported in the press was to close the deal around mid-Q3 2026.Mekong ASEAN
15 October 2026: payment in full
In practice, the final payment arrived about a quarter later than that plan. Krungsri paid in full on 15 October, three months after the shares changed hands on paper. SHB said the capital surplus received will help strengthen its capital base and create room to expand the business.Tin nhanh Chứng khoán After the deal SHB holds no stake in the company, but it will keep cooperating with Krungsri in retail banking.Thanh Niên That is a partnership, not an ownership relationship.
The three-month gap between the change of ownership and the cash arriving may be related to the gain landing in Q4 rather than Q3. Neither SHB nor the press reports have explained this, so it remains an open point.
A one-off gain: what is known, what is not
What is known is the timing: per Ms Ha, profit from the deal is expected in Q4 2026. On the same day, 15 October, SHB gave an estimated nine-month pre-tax profit of about VND 14,300 billion, up about 17% year on year.Tin nhanh Chứng khoán If the gain is indeed booked in Q4 as planned, that nine-month figure does not include it. SHB has not said so outright, so this is a reading based on the booking schedule the bank has stated.
What is not known is the size. A gain on a stake sale equals the sale price minus the carrying value of the investment on SHB's books. Neither has been disclosed: the price of the remaining 50% appears in no announcement, and the carrying value sits only in the notes to the financial statements. The roughly VND 3,600 billion figure is the estimated price of both stages combined, not a gain, so there is no basis for converting it into Q4 profit.
One more gap is how much SHBFinance used to contribute to SHB's profit. The published sources give no such share, nor how SHB accounted for the 50% it retained after 2023. The one certainty is that SHB now owns nothing in SFinance, so the bank's profit in later years will include no contribution from this finance company.
The share price in context
On 16 October, SHB closed at VND 10,650, up 2.4% from the previous session. Over the past 30 sessions, that is still below the roughly VND 11,900 level of early September. The price data cannot isolate how much of a one-session rise comes from the SHBFinance news, since other SHB-related information was circulating at the same time.
The next marker: Q4 financial statements
The deal's chain of milestones has run its course. The open question now moves to SHB's Q4 2026 financial statements, usually published at the end of the following January. They will show how much of Q4 profit came from lending and services and how much from the SHBFinance sale. If SHB discloses the gain separately before then, that date will come first.
A sensible way to read the result is to separate the two parts. Lending income shows the bank's repeatable earning power. The sale gain happens once and says nothing about later quarters. A quarter inflated by a stake sale, if read together with lending profit, would give a false impression of growth momentum in 2027.