Agribank Insurance Joint Stock Company (ABIC, ticker ABI on UPCoM) has approved its 2025 dividend in cash at 15%, or VND 1,500 per share. The payout sits on top of improving results: net profit for the first nine months of 2026 reached more than VND 266.2 billion, up 33% from a year earlier.An ninh Tiền tệ With more than 101.3 million shares outstanding, ABIC will pay out over VND 152 billion, drawn from retained earnings.Báo Pháp luật
Shareholders only need to track three dates: the ex-dividend session, the November 30 record date, and the December 18 payment date. The sections below walk through each one, then explain why holders are getting cash this time rather than extra shares.
Date one: the ex-dividend session
Whoever is on the shareholder list on November 30 receives the dividend. Because newly bought shares take time to settle, the exchange sets an ex-dividend date, normally the session right before the record date. Buy ABI from that session onward and your name will not be on the list for this payout. Sell from that session onward and you still keep the right to the cash. The exact date will appear in a notice from the Vietnam Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation (VSDC).
On the ex-dividend session, ABI's reference price is cut by exactly the dividend, VND 1,500. Against the VND 19,800 per share recorded mid-session on November 9, that is roughly 7.6% of the share price. That morning you will see a reference price well below the previous close even though no sell order has been placed. The gap is not lost: it becomes cash waiting to reach the account of whoever holds the shares.
ABI is also thinly traded. Over the last five sessions, matched volume ranged from only 1,600 to 66,800 shares a day, so actual trade prices can land well away from the adjusted reference price.
Date two: the November 30 record date
The shareholder list is fixed by the shares sitting in settled accounts on November 30. Holders on that date do not need to register or do anything else.
Date three: December 18, cash arrives
Each share receives VND 1,500 before tax. Cash dividends paid to individuals are subject to 5% personal income tax, withheld before payment,so the net amount is VND 1,425 per share.
For a few sample holdings:
- 100 shares: VND 150,000 before tax, VND 142,500 net.
- 1,000 shares: VND 1.5 million before tax, VND 1,425,000 net.
- 10,000 shares: VND 15 million before tax, VND 14,250,000 net.
Why cash and not shares
At its annual general meeting on June 25, ABIC approved a 15% dividend plan and put two options on the table: pay in shares or pay in cash.Người Quan sát A share dividend means issuing new shares, which raises charter capital. According to ABIC management at the meeting, the Law on Insurance Business requires a company that wants to raise capital to have at least two institutional shareholders each holding 10% or more of charter capital, and to use its own funds.Người Quan sát The Saigon Times cites Article 66 of the same law with similar wording.Saigon Times Mekong ASEAN reports that the cash option was judged easier to carry out because the legal conditions for a capital increase were not yet complete.Mekong ASEAN
Measured against that condition, ABIC's shareholder register looks like this:
- Agribank holds nearly 52.8 million shares, or 52.08% of capital, far above the 10% line.An ninh Tiền tệ
- Vietnam National Reinsurance Corporation (Vinare) is the second-largest holder with nearly 8.7 million shares, or 8.55%, about 1.45 percentage points short of the line.An ninh Tiền tệ
- The remaining 39.37% of charter capital belongs to other shareholders.Kinh tế Môi trường
So ABIC currently has one institutional shareholder at the threshold. This explanation rests on what management said at the June meeting, and it is consistent with the ownership structure above.
The issue is not unique to ABIC. According to the Saigon Times, a draft decree amending Decree 46/2023 would apply the shareholder-structure condition even when capital is raised through share dividends. ABIC is among the firms proposing that the condition not apply, while the Ministry of Finance holds that the law is already clear. Other insurers such as Bảo Long, Phú Hưng and Viễn Đông are also struggling with the same rule.Saigon Times This is still a draft, not an issued rule.
Where the VND 152 billion goes
Because Agribank holds more than half the capital, most of the dividend flows to it: Agribank is due to receive nearly VND 79.2 billion, Vinare nearly VND 13 billion, and the remaining shareholders about VND 60 billion.An ninh Tiền tệ
For a small holder the difference between the two forms is concrete. With a 15% share dividend, someone holding 1,000 shares would get 150 more shares and the reference price would be adjusted for the larger share count. With cash, they receive VND 1,425,000 after tax and keep the same number of shares.
At the meeting, some shareholders proposed raising the dividend to 20% or even 25%, and asked about the more than VND 136 billion of retained profit. Mr. Đỗ Minh Hoàng, a member of ABIC's board of directors, said the company needs strong financial resources to pay claims if a major disaster like Typhoon Yagi strikes.Người Quan sát
Setting the payout against results
In 2025, ABIC posted pre-tax profit of VND 318.8 billion, up 24.5% from 2024, and the VND 152 billion dividend is paid out of that year's profit.Mekong ASEAN Results have kept rising in 2026. In the first nine months, net insurance revenue reached more than VND 1,948.2 billion, up 8.2% year on year. In the third quarter alone, net profit was nearly VND 84.4 billion, up 56.2% from Q3 2025.An ninh Tiền tệ
In its explanatory filing to the State Securities Commission and the Hanoi Stock Exchange, ABIC said third-quarter profit rose mainly because total insurance claims fell by VND 46.5 billion, or 20.5%, from VND 227.2 billion to VND 180.7 billion.Kinh tế Môi trường Claims at non-life insurers swing widely from quarter to quarter, so one quarter is not enough to extrapolate a full year.
The 2026 plan approved at the meeting is pre-tax profit of at least VND 350 billion, up 9.8%, and a dividend of at least 15%.Người Quan sát Total assets at September 30, 2026 were more than VND 5,159.1 billion, up 8.1% from the start of the year,An ninh Tiền tệ so the VND 152 billion payout is only about 3% of total assets.
Next date: the private placement resolution
For current ABI holders, this round is settled: be on the list on November 30 and receive VND 1,425 per share after tax on December 18, with your share count unchanged. Future dividend forms depend on whether ABIC gets a second institutional shareholder holding 10% or more. At the June meeting, CEO Nguyễn Hồng Thái said ABIC plans a private placement to one major shareholder at market price, tied to a cooperation agreement between the two sides and as preparation for a capital increase.Người Quan sát So far this is only a plan.
If the placement lifts one institution to 10% or more, the condition management cited would be met and a share dividend could return. Holders would then also need to read the issue price, since privately placed shares dilute existing shareholders. If no second holder reaches the threshold, cash is likely to remain the form of later payouts. The board resolution on volume, price and investor will be the document that answers this. A planned move of ABI to a main board, expected in 2027, is another date to watch alongside it.Mekong ASEAN