Russian tycoons sell Round Bank to friendly investor
MOSCOW. July 5 (Interfax) - Russian tycoons Alisher Usmanov and Vladimir Skoch have sold Round Bank, formerly known as Ferrobank, to Leon Semenenko.
Semenenko wholly owns the Cyprus-based firms Hessen Holdings Ltd. and Nenburg Finance Ltd., which each own 50% of LLC SibConsultGroup, currently the sole owner of Round Bank, the lender has reported.
Round's financial statement to International Financial Reporting Standards for 2012 names Usmanov and Skoch as the bank's ultimate beneficiaries.
USM Holdings, the holding company of Usmanov and his business partners, decided to dispose of its equity stake in Round and focus on its business in other areas, a spokesman for USM Advisors told Interfax. He did not specify the price of the deal.
"Leon Semenenko is an independent fund manager who has long worked with Alisher Usmanov as a partner on joint deals," USM Advisors said. In materials for the 2013 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, he is described as an adviser to the head of Metalloinvest Management Company, which is owned by USM Holdings.
The bank's new owner is considering various options for its future development, the USM spokesman said. "One of the possible options is the creation of a banking project in the area of high technology," he said.
Round Bank was Russia's 401st largest bank by assets at the end of 2012, according to the Interfax-100 ranking of the country's lenders.
A financial market source told Interfax last year that Usmanov planned to dispose of his stake in the bank, and that it might be bought by Scartel (Yota brand), a wireless broadband operator that the billionaire controls. It was thought that after this deal Round would become the core retail bank for Yota and, possibly, mobile operator MegaFon , which Usmanov also controls.
LLC Yota chief executive Igor Torgov and former Scartel manager Rodion Shishkov serve on Round's board of directors, according to the bank. Also on the bank's board is Sergei Adonyev, the founder of Yota and a minority shareholder in Garsdale, the Usmanov-controlled company that owns Scartel and a controlling interest in MegaFon.