The sum is comparable to the capital of Russia`s Sberbank subsidiary in Ukraine PJSC Sberbank, which is estimated at $144 million, according to international accounts for January-September 2016, Kommersant publication reports citing its sources.
All funds will be transferred immediately after the purchase and sale contract comes into force, the Kommersant sources say. According to Sberbank, the deal should be closed in the first half of 2017. The parties refused to comment on the details of the deal.
Since the announcement of the sale overnight Tuesday, March 28, it was reported that Grigory Guselnikov is to receive 45% of the shares through Norvik Banka, while Said Gutseriev will get 55%. Financial details of the contract were not formally disclosed.
According to the publication, Sberbank has been negotiating with the said investors since the end of 2016. ”Initially, a much higher price was considered, but the sanctions imposed on Russian banks by Ukrainian president in the middle of March significantly adjusted the situation,” one of the publication`s sources said.
”The actions of Ukrainian radicals, which followed Sberbank`s report on servicing citizens holders of the passports of `LPR` and `DPR` [so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People`s Republics], aggravated the situation even more than the sanctions. They acted extremely aggressively, blocking branch offices and causing panic regarding the bank.” It became obvious that Sberbank needed to sell the bank as soon as possible, and the seller made concessions, to speed up the deal as much as possible,” another Kommersant`s source said.
On March 16, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree bringing into effect a National Security and Defense Council decision to impose one-year sanctions against Ukrainian-based Sberbank, VS Bank (controlled by Sberbank), Prominvestbank (owned by VEB), VTB and BM Bank (part of VTB Group) in preventing the withdrawal of capital from Ukraine to related persons.
Earlier, the Russia`s Sberbank had announced the conclusion of a legally binding agreement on the sale of PJSC Sberbank (Ukraine). Norvik Banka (Latvia) then claimed that British citizen Said Gutseriev and his Belarussian company became the majority shareholder of the new consortium.
