The Bank of Russia has received several messages from strategic investors about their intention to participate in the purchase of FC Otkritie bank, a representative of the regulator told Vedomosti. Given the size and complexity of the transaction under consideration, it takes time to study in detail the proposals received, he said. A spokesman for the central bank added that the bank’s public offering (IPO) is still one option for an exit strategy.
Yesterday Bloomberg announced the intention of the Italian banking group UniCredit to take over FC Otkritie. Earlier it was also reported that among the strategic investors there are structures of Gazprombank and the Region Group – Rossium.
Taking into account the confidentiality of the process associated with the assessment of possible ways of selling the shares of FC Otkritie, the representative of the Central Bank declined to comment on media reports about the presence or absence of a possible interest shown by this or that potential investor.
The Central Bank announced the beginning of the search for applicants for the purchase of FC Otkritie in August 2021. The sale can proceed according to one of two scenarios: the transfer of a controlling stake of 50% plus one share to a strategic investor or the IPO of part of the bank’s shares on the stock exchange. The Bank of Russia accepted applications from potential strategic investors until October 22.
FC Otkritie became the first bank that the Central Bank took for reorganization in August 2017 under a new scheme – through the Banking Sector Consolidation Fund: the Central Bank became the owner of 99.9% of the bank’s shares, and later joined Binbank, which was reorganized shortly after “Discoveries”. The Central Bank spent almost 500 billion rubles on capitalization of the rehabilitated FC Otkritie. The United Bank ranks eighth in Russia in terms of assets (2.9 trillion rubles) at the end of the third quarter of 2021. The rehabilitation of FC Otkritie lasted two years – the Central Bank announced the final rehabilitation of the bank in July 2019. Vadim Belyaev.
For 9 months of 2021, FC Otkritie Group earned 58.7 billion rubles. net profit under IFRS is twice as much as a year ago. The loan portfolio (before provisions) increased by 18% to RUB 2 trillion.
The head of the bank, Mikhail Zadornov, said in an interview with the Russia 24 TV channel in December that pre-sale preparation continues in both directions. But the most promising for the Central Bank of the two options is the public offering of the bank’s shares on the stock exchange, said in November the chairman of the regulator Elvira Nabiullina. If FC Otkritie goes on an IPO, then investors will be offered 15-20% of the shares, Zadornov said.
The first sanitized bank that the Central Bank sold was the Asia-Pacific Bank. The regulator managed to sell it from the third time in September 2021 for 14 billion rubles. – the buyer was a structure from Kazakhstan Pioneer Capital Invest, controlled by the private Nazarbayev Fund.
.