Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter as saying that Bangkok-listed SCB X has emerged as the likeliest buyer after outbidding rivals.

The potential deal, which values Home Credit Vietnam at $800-900 million, is expected to be announced as early as this week, the sources said, asking not to be named as the process is private.

Deliberations are ongoing and there is no certainty that a deal will proceed, they said.

Home Credit started the sale process last year. SCB X along with Thailand's KBank and KB Kookmin, a unit of South Korea’s KB Financial Group, were reportedly shortlisted for the next round of bidding.

Over the last five years, Vietnam’s banking industry has seen a surge in high-value M&A transactions. The most notable was a nearly $1.5 billion investment in Vietnam’s VPBank by Japan’s second-largest bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

A similarly significant deal was in 2019 when Vietnam’s BIDV bank and South Korea’s KEB Hana Bank joined forces in a deal worth more than $756 million.

Another was in October 2023, when it was announced that Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) had agreed to transfer 100 per cent of the charter capital in Postal Finance Company Limited (PTF) to Japan’s AEON Group in a deal worth VND4.3 trillion ($175.2 million).

According to Dezan Shira & Associates, there are several factors driving M&A activity in Vietnam’s banking sector. This includes demand for capital among domestic banks, a rapidly growing consumer market, and a need to diversify their products.

With local banks in need of capital, a growing consumer class in need of financial services, and foreign banks looking for low-cost ways to grow their customer base and diversify their product lines, M&As in Vietnam’s banking industry will likely be common in 2024.