VEDOMOSTI. Moscomprivatbank, a subsidiary of Ukrainian bank PrivatBank, has been put up for sale. As Vedomosti learned, the search of a buyer kicked off in the middle of last week. The bank’s owners, according to the paper’s source, talk about difficulties which their Russian assets have been facing and want to sell the bank as soon as possible. But the bank’s shareholders will hardly be able to sell the bank on market terms because of political pressure, the same source went on to say. A potential buyer will likely hard to agree upon a deal with the Kremlin. Moscomprivatbank’s sale is a business story, no participation of the Kremlin is needed, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian President, noted.
At the beginning of last week PrivatBank co-owner Igor Kolomoysky (he holds 33.85% of the bank, as posted on the bank’s website) exchanged insults with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kolomoysky said that “the opponent is not adequate”, while Vladimir Putin in turn called him “a vagabond” who drifted Roman Abramovich. Temporary administration was appointed for the bank’s Moscow subsidiary in several days, on Thursday. The regulator named no reasons, while its representative declined to comment. The Bank of Russia previously installed no representatives at banks in this manner.
A man close to the bank’s temporary administration specified that the regulator’s representatives “looked into” all operations exceeding 1% of the bank’s assets, with close attention paid to the operations between Moscomprivatbank and its counterparties. Most likely the Bank of Russia wants to monitor so that the bank’s shareholder takes no action to resolve its problems faced in Ukraine using the money of its Russian subsidiary, the paper’s respondent believes. A man close to Moscomprivatbank’s temporary administration also said about this.
On Friday the Bank of Russia assigned duties of temporary administration to the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). The agency’s task is to perform assessment of the bank in order to prevent bankruptcy, the regulator reported. The shareholders’ powers and authority related to the participation in the charter capital and those of the bank’s management board chairman were suspended. The agency will obtain first results on March 11. Vedomosti’s interviewees do not rule out that upon completion of the inspection the Bank of Russia could revoke Moscomprivatbank’s license.
