Interfax. British financial company International Personal Finance plc (IPF) that specializes in providing unsecured consumer loans in developing countries has completed the purchase of a 100% stake in Kaliningrad-based Sea Commercial Bank, Sea Bank (Moscow) said in a press release.
IPF bought 47.8% of the bank’s shares from Igor Dergunov, board chairman at Sea Bank (Moscow), and 52.18% directly from Moscow-based Sea Bank.
The media wired earlier that the transaction price totaled Rub 140 mln.
IPF that staged an IPO on LSE last year conducts operations in a number of Central European countries and also in Mexico.
Moscow-headquartered Sea Bank officially confirmed that it sold a 52.177% stake in the Kaliningrad-based bank to IPF on December 29, 2007. Until recently the lending institution’s other shares were owned, according to the information disclosure system, by Sea Bank’s board chairman Igor Dergunov.
In 2007, Sea Bank (Moscow) that specializes in lending companies that operate in the sea and river transportation industries ranked 223rd in terms of assets in the Interfax-100 ranking compiled by Interfax-Center for Economic Analysis, while Sea Commercial Bank was in 979th place.
Moscow-based Sea Bank is controlled by the structures affiliated with entrepreneur Sergey Generalov.
