Nomos-Bank to merge with Otkritie Bank by Jan 2014
MOSCOW. April 1 (Interfax) - Nomos-Bank will merge with Otkritie Bank, which is part of the Otkritie Financial Corporation, by January 2014, Otkritie Financial Corporation co-owner Boris Mints told the press.
After that, Nomos-Bank may consolidate another 40% of Khanty Mansiysk Bank (it currently owns 51.29% of Khanty Mansiysk Bank).
"We should complete the consolidation of Otkritie and Nomos by January and over the next year we will continue the consolidation associated with Khanty Mansiysk Bank. We thought we could do it by November but technically speaking it just can't happen... This is not because we have not got the time in terms of procedures, the integral plan has been approved for a while, everything is moving in the right direction. The problem is simply technical. Everybody is telling us that, from the Central Bank to the Tax Service, the most likely time that we will move to a single balance sheet is January 1 to 14," Mints said.
Nomos Bank first announced plans to consolidate 100% of Khanty Mansiysk Bank in its IPO prospectus in 2011.
In an auction held in late September 2012, LLC Ferrosplav Invest, which is affiliated with ICT Group (currently the majority Nomos Bank shareholder), bought 44.2% of government shares in Khanty Mansiysk Bank for 12.77 billion rubles.
Since the summer of 2012 Nomos Bank has been in the process of changing its shareholder composition - Otkritie Financial Corporation is buying 100% of Nomos Bank.
In February 2013 the Nomos Bank supervisory board refused to make an additional share issue of 650 million rubles. A source told Interfax at the time that Otkritie Financial Corporation had decided to postpone consolidation of Khanty Mansiysk Bank.
"The financial corporation needs money right now to consolidate Nomos Bank. So Otkritie is postponing the planned consolidation of Khanty Mansiysk Bank, considering that for management it is enough to have a controlling stake in the bank. Now they [Otkritie Financial Corporation] will negotiate with ICT about the purchase of the remaining shares in Khanty Mansiysk Bank," the source said.
Nomos Bank did not confirm that the money from the additional issue was to be used to consolidate Khanty Mansiysk Bank further. However, Nomos Financial Director Vladimir Rykunov did speak about such a possibility earlier. "An additional share issue would be one possible instrument for replenishing capital if it was necessary," a spokesman said.
Otkritie Financial Corporation acquired 19.9% of Nomos-Bank in August 2012. It planned to acquire complete control of the bank in two years and then carry out an IPO. After the merger is complete the Nomos-Bank shareholders will be as follows: Vadim Belyaev and his team of key managers will own up to 25% and stakes of up to 10% will belong to ICT and VTB Group companies, Mints and Alexander Mamut.
Nomos-Bank was ranked number 11 by asset value and Oktritie was number 33 in the Interfax 100 review of Russia's banks in 2012.