Sovcombank shareholders approve merger with Vitabank

MOSCOW. Feb 16 (Interfax) - Sovcombank shareholders have decided at an extraordinary general meeting to reorganize the lending institution by merging with Vitabank, Sovcombank said.

Sovcombank's interest in Vitabank became known in February 2022, when former Sovcombank Deputy Chairman Kirill Sokolov acquired 54% in Vitabank and Sovcombank acquired 31% with the purpose of creating various payment services under Vitabank's license using Sovcombank's Best2pay technology platform.

However, the United States placed Sovcombank and its subsidiaries, including Best2pay, on the sanctions list just a few days after the announcement of Vitabank's new shareholder structure, on February 24, 2022. Sovcombank subsequently exited Vitabank's capital, transferring its stake to Sokolov, who now owns 85%, and this stake was transferred to another former Sovcombank senior manager, Oleg Yarmushevich, already in March 2022. Yarmushevich made several offers to buy out the minority shareholders. The results of the latest offer, which could have made Yarmushevich the sole owner of Vitabank, have not been published.

Information about when Sovcombank acquired 100% ownership in Vitabank has also not been disclosed.

The United States imposed blocking sanctions against Vitabank in November 2024.

Vitabank was founded in the Soviet Union in 1990 by Leningrad authorities and local food industry enterprises. By the early 2000s, the bank's majority owner was the St. Petersburg Mill Plant of entrepreneur Alexander Aladushkin.

Sovcombank is rather active in the M&A market, acquiring not only banks, but also other financial institutions, namely investment and insurance companies.

Sovcombank ranked ninth with assets of 4.466 trillion rubles at the end of 2025 in the Interfax-100 ranking prepared by the Interfax Center for Economic Analysis, and Vitabank ranked 172nd with assets of 10.6 billion rubles.