Vozrozhdenie interest in SPO cools after pension investment rules tightened
MOSCOW. Aug 24 (Interfax) - Bank Vozrozhdenie's interest in a possible SPO in the near future has cooled, the bank's head, Konstantin Basmanov, told a press conference.
The bank has said it was thinking of an SPO in order to keep its shares in the Moscow Exchange's premium quotation list. Until June, that listing enabled the bank to receive investments from non-state pension funds.
The bank's deputy CEO, Andrei Shalimov, told the press conference that the bank's plans had been affected by a decision by the Central Bank in June to firm up requirements for shares in which non-state pension funds can invest resources.
"The Central Bank essentially said you can buy shares that get into that index in large quantities, but it can hardly be expected that shares in Vozrozhdenie will end up on that list," he said.
Vozrozhdenie Bank had previously announced a possible SPO to maintain its top tier listing on the Moscow Exchange, which until June had enabled the non-governmental funds to invest in the bank's stock.
"The exchange really tightened up the listing requirements this year, that is, it tightened them up last year and it all came into effect this year. Given that Promsvyaz Capital consolidated control, the free float has of course shrunk," Shalimov said. The bank no longer meets the requirements for a top-tier listing, although the listing is no longer as valuable, since the Central Bank has permitted the nongovernmental pension funds to invest in shares on a separate index that does not depend on the exchange's listing.
"Most likely, this short-term demand or simply desire to conduct an SPO is of course much less urgent. Plus, from the standpoint of the shareholders, going to the market when the bank is trading at less than capital, roughly 0.6 - that is after all a major deviation - of course, this is not so interesting," he said, adding that given the situation, the bank will proceed more slowly.
Vozrozhdenie's ownership structure was fundamentally altered in November 2015, when Promsvyaz Capital, controlled by the Ananyev brothers, Alexei and Dmitry, acquired a controlling stake.
According to information on the bank's website, Promsvyaz Capital owned 52.73% of voting shares as of the end of April 2016, Promsvyazbank has 2.52%, Vektor Invest LLC (controlled by Natalya Bogdanova) - 10.53%, ex-senator Viktor Pichugov - 10%, Credit Bank of Moscow - 9.07%, the son of the bank's founder, Nikolai Orlov - 6.89%, Nordan Ltd (Cyprus) - 1.34% and minority shareholders - 6.84%.
Vozrozhdenie Bank was the 37th biggest Russian bank by assets as of the end of the first half of 2016 according to the Interfax-100 ranking compiled by the Center for Economic Analysis.