RIA NOVOSTI. Orient Express Bank (Khabarovsk) and Bank Dvizhenie (Tomsk) have completed a merger, the lending institutions said in a press release that RIA Novosti quotes.
The merger was carried out by folding Bank Dvizhenie into Orient Express Bank and the merger passed state registration on October 22, the press release specified. The two merged lending institutions have different owners, but their management team includes former top managers of SBS-Agro that went bankrupt scandalously in the early 2000s.
Orient Express Bank is one of the largest universal lending institutions in Russia’s Far East. Bank Dvizhenie specializes in providing banking services to households and small businesses.
The media wired earlier the banks intend to wrap up the merger by November 1, 2009.
On September 10, 2009 Orient Express Bank’s BoD adopted a decision to place 2.1 bln common shares with Rub 0.01 par value each. The plan was to convert one Bank Dvizhenie share into seven shares of Orient Express Bank.
Orient Express Bank board member Kirill Nifontov told the news agency earlier that after the stock conversion is complete equity positions of its shareholders will remain virtually unchanged. At present, Orient Express Bank’s management board chairman Sergei Vlasov owns 16.7% of the bank’s charter capital. Another big owner of the company is Igor Kim (around 20% of the charter capital). Bank Dvizhenie is owned by management board chairman Alexei Grigoriev (10.7%), Evgeny Khankhalaev (6.7%), Alexander House (31.1%), Tsentr Uvelir (31.1%) and Management Company United Investment Funds (20%).
Previously Vlasov from Orient Express Bank and Grigoriev from Bank Dvizhenie held executive positions at SBS-Agro that was established by entrepreneur Alexander Smolensky. This lending institution was in business for over 10 years and scandalously went bankrupt in 2003. In addition, according to a number of media sources, Grigoriev is a nephew of Alexander Smolensky who is among Bank Dvizhenie’s affiliates.
The merged bank’s capital was to reach around Rub 7.5 bln, aggregate assets to top Rub 45 bln and the sales network to exceed 400 units in around 160 cities of Russia. At present, Orient Express Bank’s head office is located in Khabarovsk. There is no plan to relocate the headquarters to another city after the merger.
