Expobank, a lender owned by renowned banker Igor Kim, has acquired an 84.66% interest in Yakutsk-based MAK-Bank from diamond corporation Alrosa, Expobank announced the successful completion of the transaction in a press release. The bank received required approval from the Central Bank of Russia.
"We'll continue our strategy of consolidating banking assets. Under the current market conditions this business model helps us bump up capital and expand our coverage area," Expobank management board chairman Kirill Nifontov said.
The lending institution said in the press release that Alrosa divested the bank's shares while executing its program to pull out of non-core assets and focus on diamond production. Last summer Alrosa held a public auction to sell its holding (84.66%) for Rub 414 mln with the condition that a long-term deposit account of at least Rub 2 bln is opened at MAK-Bank. Rost Bank won the auction at the starting price, but the deal got no approval of the Bank of Russia and was rolled back for an indefinite period. At that time Igor Kim's Expobank was also named among contenders to this asset.
At the end of 2014 Expobank's general participants meeting decided to purchase an interest in MAK-Bank's charter capital. The transaction price is not disclosed. However, in late December 2014 the lending institution's initial press release ran that the equity interest would be bought at a price not exceeding Rub 230 mln. Later these data were corrected, and the press release only said that it was decided "to approve Expobank's participation in MAK-Bank by acquiring 84.6622% of the charter capital".
