Kazakhstan completes sale of former Sberbank subsidiary to Qatar's Lesha Bank

ASTANA. Oct 8 (Interfax) - The Kazakh state holding Baiterek has closed a deal for selling 100% of the shares in Bereke Bank, a former subsidiary of Russia's Sberbank , to Qatar's Lesha Bank, the holding's press service said.

"All the conditions of the agreement were successfully agreed upon by the sides. The deal will receive all required approval from Kazakh regulators, including approval from the Kazakh Agency for Regulation and Development of Financial Market provided in August for Lesha Bank to obtain the status of a bank holding and permission to acquire Bereke Bank," it said.

Bereke Bank will continue to fulfil all of its obligations to its clients.

Bereke Bank will continue to fulfil all of its obligations to its clients, providing the services under the existing terms and conditions and will remain a second-tier bank, according to the press release.

Baiterek earlier estimated the assets and liabilities of Bereke Bank for sale at 2.06 trillion tenge as at June 30, 2024; the bank's liabilities were valued at 1.7 trillion tenge.

In May 2024, Lesha Bank from Qatar acquired Bereke Bank for 65 billion tenge, pending certain conditions.

The Kazakh subsidiary of Sberbank fell under U.S. blocking sanctions in March 2022. Sberbank sold the bank to Baiterek in September 2022. After the transaction, the financial organization changed its name to Bereke Bank. In the same month, the new owner of the bank submitted a package of documents to the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to lift sanctions against the financial institution.

On March 8, 2023, OFAC removed Bereke Bank from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) and Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List (SSI).

Bereke Bank ranked 9th in terms of assets with 2.338 trillion tenge as of September 1, according to the National Bank.