INTERFAX. British direct investments fund Aurora Russia snapped up 100% of Volga Universal Bank for Rub 210 mln (£4.52 mln), the fund said in a statement. Aurora Russia acquired this bank through its subsidiary, Cyprus-based Flexinvest. The fund’s total investments in Flexinvest equal £6.36 mln, with £4.52 mln (Rub 210 mln) falling to the bank’s purchase and the rest will be used as a contribution to the bank’s capital. The deal was already approved by the Bank of Russia.
Volga Universal Bank is based in Samara and specializes in retail lending. At the end of 2007 its assets stood at Rub 263 mln. The Samara-based lending institution will become for Aurora Russia a foothold for rolling out retail operations, first and foremost, as part of a joint program carried out by another subsidiary, Creditmart (specializes in financial and mortgage brokerage services). Following the lender’s acquisition the fund intends to widen the range of services promoted through Creditmart. The financial brokerage will be offering credits and the bank’s deposit services through its network.
Aurora Russia primarily focuses on injecting funds into Russian private businesses that operate on the financial and consumer services markets. The fund’s securities are listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). James Cook runs the fund. The fund’s well-known projects in Russia are the establishment of DeltaCredit and Deltabank which were sold off at a later time to Societe Generale and GE Consumer Finance, respectively.
Aurora Russia also holds 40.3% of Whitebrooks Investments Limited, a company involved in the storage of documents, paperwork and archive management (part of OSG Records Management) and a 26% interest in Unistream’s charter capital.
In 2007, Volga Universal Bank ranked 896th in terms of assets in the Interfax-100 ranking, prepared by Interfax-CEA.
