Khanty-Mansiysk Otkritie Bank would wrap up the purchase of Rocketbank till the end of April 2016. The financial institution agreed to buy 100% of Rocketbank from the company's founders and venture fund Runa Capital, Khanty-Mansiysk Otkritie Bank's press service reported.
"This deal matches our strategy, in which digital business is one of the key areas. In the past few months we have cooperated with Rocketbank as a strategic partner. During this period we assured ourselves that Rocketbank and its team create substantial added value, and may be seamlessly and efficiently integrated into Otkritie Group. Our partnership has already allowed Rocketbank to be more efficient in hooking up customers using the power of the Otkritie brand, and also to speed up product development considerably. On the other hand, we see room to get the most of Rocketbank's potential, both in terms of technology, services and customer relations, to roll out other areas of Khanty-Mansiysk Otkritie Bank's retail business," Khanty-Mansiysk Otkritie Bank CEO Elena Budnik commented.
In September 2015, Tinkoff Bank board chairman Oleg Tinkoff wrote on his Facebook* account that Rocketbank was put up for sale and the businessman was ready to buy it for $1 mln. Later the media wired that Khanty-Mansiysk Otkritie Bank would acquire the banking services provider, and the transaction price would be $4.5 mln. However, a Banki.ru source close to one of the parties specified at that time that the talks were under way, but a decision on the deal was yet to be adopted.
Interactive Bank later refused to buy Rocketbank. According to the financial institution's leader Andrei Bukhtiyarov, the parties failed to reach an agreement on a number of terms, but Bukhtiyarov refused to name them.
In December 2015, Otkritie Group decided to have Rocketbank hold settlement accounts at the bank. All the new customers of Rocketbank are now served at Otkritie Bank that is now a bank card issuer and holds balances available on customers' accounts.*Сервис/сервисы, принадлежащие Meta, признанной в РФ экстремистской организацией, деятельность которой запрещена на территории РФ
