Sovcombank minority shareholder seeks to sell 5% stake through Avito - paper

MOSCOW. July 18 (Interfax) - Sovcombank minority shareholder Mikhail Klyukin has posted an ad on classifieds website Avito to sell his 5% stake in the Russian lender, national daily Kommersant reported on Friday, citing sources.

Klyukin hopes to get a premium to the current market price of the publicly traded bank's shares, based on which his stake is worth over 17 billion rubles, the paper said.

"Offered for direct sale are shares in IJSC Sovco Capital Partners (the beneficiary shareholder of PJSC Sovcombank) in the amount of about 7% of the total number of shares, which corresponds to about 5% of the total number of shares in PJSC Sovcombank," the ad on Avito said.

A representative of the seller on Avito told the paper that the ad was posted "with the goal of getting the maximum coverage of potential buyers."

"A similar offer was sent to all the current shareholders of IJSC Sovco Capital Partners," he said. The price of the stake will be calculated in the course of negotiations with the potential buyer, he added.

The paper reported a source as saying that this stake has been offered for sale for quite some time, but a deal has not happened yet because the asking price exceeds the bank's current share price on the Moscow Exchange.

Sovcombank said it "does not comment on the plans, deals and equity ownership size of individual shareholders."

Sovcombank, like many other Russian lenders, does not disclose its ownership structure in detail. IJSC Sovco Capital Partners is the bank's principal shareholder with 71.6%, and the free float is 14.5%.

Sovcombank was Russia's ninth largest bank by assets at the end of the first quarter of 2025, according to the Interfax-100 ranking.