Vietnam's BIDV assets rise 8.8 pct so far in 2008

HANOI, June 20 (Reuters) - Total assets of state-run BIDV, Vietnam's second-largest lender by assets, at end-May have risen 8.8 percent from the start of this year and loans rose 13.3 percent in the same period, state-run media reported on Friday.

Hanoi-based BIDV, or the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, had assets of 222 trillion dong ($13.5 billion) in May, when its deposits rose 3.6 percent from the start of 2008, the Planning and Investment Ministry-run Securities Investment magazine said.

It gave no value figures for loans and deposits but said BIDV had cut bad debt to less than 1.5 percent of loans. BIDV has planned to cut bad debt to under 3 percent of loans for the whole of 2008 from less than 4 percent last year.

In April, BIDV Chairman Tran Bac Ha said the bank planned to slow lending and limit its annual gross profit growth at 48.8 percent this year after a 82 percent surge last year.

BIDV has projected asset growth of 23 percent this year, while its assets last year rose 26.8 percent from 2006 to nearly 205 trillion dong.

On June 4, Moody's revised down to negative from positive the rating outlook for the B1 foreign currency deposits of BIDV and two other Vietnamese banks, after it downgraded the outlook for Vietnam's B1 foreign currency deposit ceiling to negative from positive.

BIDV's foreign currency deposits are rated at the B1 sovereign ceiling due to the bank's state ownership and its bank financial strength rating stands at E+, Moody's said. ($1=16,452 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Ben Tan)