Shearman & Sterling is representing the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) in its sale of a 15% post-money stake to Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. (Mizuho), for approximately $567.3 million. Mizuho will subscribe for approximately 347.6 million new ordinary shares of Vietcombank at VND34,000 (US$1.62) per share and will become the sole foreign strategic investor in Vietcombank and largest shareholder in Vietcombank after the government of Vietnam. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012.

The signing ceremony, which was held in Hanoi on September 30, 2011, was attended by several hundred people, including the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, the Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Vietnam, the Vietnamese Minister of Finance, the CEOs and members of the boards of directors of both banks, senior officials from the State Bank of Vietnam and senior members of the Vietnamese Communist Party.

The transaction was widely reported in the Vietnamese media. According to Thomson Reuters, the transaction is Vietnam’s largest-ever inbound investment from a foreign company and Mizuho’s investment in Vietcombank alone represents approximately one-third of Vietnam’s total M&A volume in 2010.

Vietcombank (listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange) is a major Vietnamese commercial bank and is ranked No. 1 among the four major commercial banks in Vietnam in terms of both market capitalization and net profit. Mizuho is a leading financial services provider in Japan and one of the largest financial services providers globally.

The Shearman & Sterling team included Hong Kong M&A partner Greg Puff and associates Shirin Tang (Singapore-Mergers & Acquisitions) and Tiffany Hill (Singapore-Mergers & Acquisitions).

Other Shearman & Sterling attorneys involved in the transactions are partners Kenneth Lebrun (Tokyo-Mergers & Acquisitions), Peter Chen (Hong Kong-Capital Markets), Colin Law (Hong Kong-Capital Markets), Bradley Sabel (New York-Financial Institutions Advisory & Financial Regulatory) and Philip Urofsky (Washington, DC-Litigation), counsel Yu-Jin Tay (Singapore-International Arbitration) and associate Lily Zhou (Hong Kong-Capital Markets).