HANOI - Vietnam's Sacombank STB.HM, 10 percent owned by Australia's ANZ, said on Friday its January-April gross profit fell 8.4 percent to 491 billion dong ($27.6 million).

Loans of Sacombank, the country's sixth-largest lender by assets, totalled 41.43 trillion dong at the end of April, 0.76 percent of which were non-performing, below deposits of 62.18 trillion dong, it said without giving any comparative figures.

The Ho Chi Minh City-based bank gave no reasons for the lower earnings but said the four-month profit excluded results from its subsidiaries. State media earlier said Sacombank had a loss from equity investments in the first quarter.

Sacombank shares closed down 3.7 percent at 26,100 dong earlier on Friday.

The World Bank's International Finance Corp, Dragon Capital and ANZ Bank together own 30 percent of Sacombank, the ceiling for foreign ownership of listed banks in Vietnam.

Sacombank has forecast that its gross profit would rise 47 percent this year to 1.6 trillion dong after a fall in 2008. [ID:nHAN369575]. ($1=17,781 dong)

(Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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