VEDOMOSTI. Samara-based bank Solidarnost is to engage in rehabilitating Toggliati-headquartered Potentialbank that is on the verge of bankruptcy because of insufficient liquidity. The problematic bank’s buyer was found with assistance from the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) that decided jointly with the Bank of Russia on November 6 to rehabilitate Potentialbank.
Solidarnost’s board chairman Alexey Titov confirmed his bank is to buy 100% of Potentialbank’s securities. According to Titov, the bank is prepared to allocate some of its own funds to rehabilitate the bank. Neither the sum nor total value of this project was disclosed by Titov. He attributed interest in Potentialbank to the well-organized retail network.
The transaction price will be symbolic, since it’s not possible to conduct full audit of the company’s books within a short period. The settlement will be made within several months and the transaction price could amount to Rub 500—700 mln, First United Bank’s senior vice president Denis Khadeev thinks.
Potentialbank faced liquidity problems in early October when households rushed to take back their deposits en mass. A banker from Samara assured earlier that around 20% of the total deposits (roughly Rub 4 bln based on H108 financials) were withdrawn from Potentialbank’s accounts. Since October 16 the bank imposed restrictions on amounts of premature deposit withdrawals to Rub 10,000 per day and suspended any payments to clients on October 30. All payments should be resumed to depositors as early as next week.
Based on H108 performance, Toggliati-based lender Potential ranked 296th in terms of assets (Rub 4.58 bln) in the Interfax-100 ranking of Russian banks, prepared by Interfax-CEA.
Solidarnost is in 157th place in the ranking (assets total Rub 12 bln).
