The Bank of Russia registered a new corporate name of Volga Universal Bank — Flexinvest Bank. The lending institution’s registered office also changed, as it is to move from Samara to Moscow.
As news agency Banki.ru learned, these changes are driven by the ownership shakeup. This May 100% of Volga Universal Bank was picked up by Flexinvest Limited, a subsidiary of UK investment fund Aurora Russia. The transaction price equaled 5.1 mln pounds sterling (Rub 237 mln).
The plan is to establish a retail bank specialized in mortgage lending on the basis of Flexinvest Bank. Aurora Russia shareholders expect a synergetic effect to be achieved from the bank’s operations with financial supermarket Creditmart, another asset of the investment fund. Creditmart will be offering mortgage loans, deposit and other retail products of Flexinvest through its distribution network all across Russia.
The seat of Flexinvest Bank’s board chairman was occupied by James Cook, one of the founders of investment fund Aurora Russia. Cook is a well-known expert on the Russian mortgage market. He established Russia’s first mortgage bank, DeltaCredit, and later on he held office as board chairman at GE Money Bank. At present, James Cook is a board member at Forus Bank and ICICI Bank.
