France’s BNP Paribas and South Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank are in separate talks to acquire at least a 15% stake in Vietnam’s Techcombank as strategic investors, in a deal that could be worth about $2 billion. Techcombank shares closed at VND 33,450 on August 26 after the news, hitting the ceiling price for the first time in nearly a month. The potential transaction would give one foreign bank rare access to Vietnam’s banking market. With current market cap at $9.1 billion, the implied valuation would be $13.3 billion if the deal closes. Techcombank targets $20 billion market capitalization. The bank reported first-half pretax profit of VND 18.54 trillion, up 22.5%.