Gelex Group Joint Stock Company (stock code GEX) said that on August 7 and 8, the company bought 50 million and 39 million EIB shares of Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) respectively through trading on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE).

With the matching price from 18,350 VND to 18,400 VND/share, Gelex paid about 1,637 billion VND to buy a total of 89 million EIB shares.

After completing the transaction, Gelex's ownership increased from 85.5 million shares, accounting for 4.9% to 174.6 million shares, equivalent to 10% of Eximbank's charter capital. This is also the maximum percentage that an institutional shareholder is allowed to own in a joint stock commercial bank according to the provisions of the Law on Credit Institutions 2024. Thus, Gelex is currently the largest shareholder at Eximbank.

According to the law, investors purchasing commercial bank vouchers to become major shareholders (owning 5% or more of charter capital) must be approved by the State Bank.

Accordingly, a week ago, the State Bank agreed to let Gelex buy shares of Eximbank through order matching or negotiation on the HoSE in 2024.