30 Jan 2018 19:52

Sovcombank buys 11% of shares in Rosevrobank from EBRD, boosts stake to 45%

MOSCOW. Jan 30 (Interfax) - Sovcombank has purchased the 11% stake in Rosevrobank held by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Sovcombank said in a statement.

"According to preliminary estimates, Rosevrobank turned a net profit of about 5 billion rubles in 2017 and we expect that Rosevrobank will allocate about 2 billion rubles to dividends. The investment in Rosevrobank gives stable high dividend income and growth in value," Sovcombank CEO Dmitry Gusev is quoted in the statement as saying.

The acquisition boosts Sovcombank's outright stake in Rosevrobank to 35.34% from 24.34%. It indirectly controls another 10.05% of shares via REG Holding Ltd, which owns the other 64.66% of shares in Rosevrobank. In other words, Sovcombank controls 45.4% of Rosevrobank shares, although it describes itself as "a minority financial investor."

Sovcombank was the 17th biggest Russian bank by assets as of the end of the third quarter of 2017, and Rosevrobank was the 48th biggest, according to the Interfax-100 ranking compiled by the Center for Economic Analysis.