Foreign group acquires stake in Vietnamese securities company

SBI Holdings, Inc. ("SBIH") announced today that SBI SECURITIES Co., Ltd. ("SBIS"), a subsidiary of SBIH, has reached a basic agreement to acquire a 20% stake of FPT Securities Joint Stock Company ("FPT Securities" or "the Company"), one of the major securities companies in Vietnam, who is issuing its new shares to external investor.

FPT Securities is an affiliate securities company of FPT Corporation, Vietnam\'s largest IT company, and SBIH\'s investment partner in a jointly established and operated private equity fund in Vietnam. The Company is ranked fifth on the Ho Chi Minh Securities Exchange, amongst over a hundred securities companies, and is ranked second at the Hanoi Securities Exchange in terms of trading value. Also, FPT Securities is aggressively developing online trading systems utilizing FPT Group\'s technology, and over 90% of its customers utilize its online trading.

SBI anticipates a substantial growth opportunity of the Vietnamese securities industry, owing to its increased financing activity through the capital markets, and the expansion of the lower end of the individual investors with future economic development. Further, it is said that the number of individual securities account openings remains at only 1% of the nation. In addition, SBIS is under discussions to trade Vietnamese stocks in Japan in tandem with FPT Securities.

The SBI Group has accelerated its overseas development primarily in emerging Asian countries, through partnerships with prominent local partners in each country. In Vietnam, SBIH has already invested in Tien Phong Bank, in which the FPT Group also invested as a principal shareholder, and will endeavor to establish other partnerships with the FPT Group. Furthermore, SBIH will continue its overseas development of financial services business, such as banking, securities businesses, and the investment business.