PRIME-TASS. Austrian lender Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) purchased a portfolio of Swedish Swedbank’s retail credits in Kaliningrad. This was confirmed by RBI management board chairman Herbert Stepic during a conference call on Thursday, Prime-TASS reports.
In early August news agency Dow Jones wired that Swedbank, which by the end of 2012 plans to roll down retail business in Russia and focus on corporate lending, is in talks with RBI over the sale of its Russian retail assets. The negotiations are at the initial stage and no agreements have yet been reached, an informed source told the agency.
“Banks, while planning to leave a country, recommend their customers which banks they could go to in the future. Swedbank is one of such banks. In my opinion, Swedbank holds modest assets in Russia…," the management board chairman specified noting that RBI has no intention to buy Swedbank’s whole retail credit portfolio in Russia.
“Only in those regions where, in our view, it makes sense. To date, we have purchased a retail credit portfolio only in Kaliningrad," Stepic said without specifying the amount of credits bought.
He added that the purchase of Swedbank’s some retail assets will have no tangible impact on RBI’s operations.
According to Dow Jones, a year ago Swedbank held talks over the sale of its Russian subsidiary with a Finnish bank, but the parties failed to come to terms about the terms of a transaction.
The credit portfolio of Swedbank, which represents Scandinavian group Swedbank in Russia, totaled Rub 25.48 bln under IFRS in April-June 2011. As of early July the bank’s equity capital 4.49 bln. Swedbank’s quarterly profit reached Rub 166.7 mln.
Swedbank operates divisions in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad.
