VTB chief says shares in bank unlikely to be privatized this year
OSTROV RUSSKY. Sept 7 (Interfax) - Shares in VTB are unlikely to be privatized this year, the bank's chairman, Andrei Kostin, told reporters on the sidelines of the APEC business summit in Vladivostok.
"I think it's unlikely to be this year," Kostin said.
"There's always a chance," he said, when asked whether a block of shares might be sold before the end of the year. "But we have Sberbank , which plans to sell a large number of shares, and the understanding is that Sberbank is first in the queue, and Sberbank still hasn't sold its shares," Kostin said.
He said there had to be a time lag "of at least one or two quarters" between a Sberbank and a VTB share sale, so privatizing shares in VTB is unlikely this year.
The market expects Sberbank to hold an SPO, which was originally planned for last autumn but put off due to poor markets, in the next few weeks, but neither the Central Bank, owner of the 7.6% of shares that are expected to be sold, nor Sberbank have made official statements on this score.
The state owns 75.5% of VTB. It sold 10% of the bank last year and planned to sell another 10% in 2012.
