“Today a decision in principle was adopted to fold Severnaya Kazna into Alfa-Bank," Alfa-Bank COO Valery Novikov told news portal Banki.ru. According to him, as part of the deal the plan is to buy out stocks from the remaining shareholders of Severnaya Kazna. Legal and organizational procedures could last until the middle of 2011.
“This is the final step of the approved rehabilitation strategy for Severnaya Kazna," Novikov explained the decision adopted adding at the time when Alfa-Bank’s participation in Severnaya Kazna’s rehabilitation was discussed it was presumed that the bank’s brand will disappear and all business operations will come under the roof of Alfa-Bank.
It’s noteworthy that a stock buyout offer was forwarded to Severnaya Kazna minority shareholders in late March. Currently Alfa-Bank owns 85% of the rehabilitated lending institution’s securities and intends to up its interest to 100%.
As known, in mid-December 2008 with DIA support Alfa-Bank was appointed to rescue Severnaya Kazna, whose financial standing dramatically deteriorated during the crisis.
Alfa-Bank is Russia’s No. 1 private bank. Its beneficial owners are Alfa-Group co-owners Mikhail Fridman, Herman Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev (who control 36.47%, 23.27% and 18.12%, respectively), and also Alfa-Bank CEO Peter Aven (13.76%), former Alfa-Bank top manager Alex Knaster (4.3%) and Andrei Kosogov (4.08%).
Based on data provided by Banki.ru, as of March 1, 2010 Alfa-Bank’s assets stood at Rub 670.9 bln, equity (calculated in accordance with CBR requirements) totaled Rub 124.6 bln, including the Rub 55.3 bln subordinated loan, the credit portfolio equaled Rub 426.6 bln and liabilities to households came to Rub 129.6 bln.
