Sberbank sells part of its stake in Russian Auction House
MOSCOW. Oct 8 (Interfax) - Sberbank has sold part of its stake in OJSC Auction House of the Russian Federation (AHRF), but still retains partner status.
Information disclosed by Sberbank and AHRF show that the bank came out of the list of affiliated companies of the auction house. Sberbank had owned 25% of AHRF and being taken out of the list shows that it now has under 20% but the actual share has not been disclosed.
"Although the Sberbank stake in AHRF was a minority share before, it still remains significant and AHRF continues to be a key partner of the bank," Sberbank told Interfax.
The bank sold part of its stake to other auction house shareholders and management. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
Reducing its affiliation with the major business structure will enable AHRF to increase efficiency and transparency when selling property, including property offered for sale by Sberbank itself, the bank reckons.
The controlling shareholder is St. Petersburg CJSC Russian Jeweller. According to the SPARK Interfax database the founders of the St. Petersburg company are AHRF employees Dinara Useinova and Maria Marakovskaya. Russian Jeweller increased its stake in August from 51% to 59%. The St. Petersburg Property Fund owns 15% of AHRF.
AHRF specializes in the sale of property, privatization deals, the sale of assets in bankruptcies, antiques and works of art. Revenue in 2012 was 207.6 million rubles.
