The bank, formally Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank, has registered to list over 1.17 billion shares on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE), the bourse said on its website.

MSB leaders first mentioned the public listing at a shareholders’ meeting in 2016 when the bank completed its merger with the Mekong Bank.

In 2017, just 3 percent of shareholders approved the listing because the stock price was too low, but the ratio rose to over 99 percent last year.

From January to September, MSB’s after-tax profit surged 3.5 times year-on-year to over VND868 billion ($37.3 million).

It is set to be the 18th listed commercial bank in Vietnam. Five of 10 most profitable listed companies in the first nine months were banks, with a total pre-tax profit of VND49.65 trillion ($2.14 billion).