Sberbank continues to improve terms of deal for purchasing VBI
VIENNA, Austria. Dec 30 (Interfax) - Sberbank of Russia is continuing negotiations on improving the conditions of the deal for acquiring Volksbank International (VBI), the cost of which could be reduced to 480 million euro, Austrian newspaper Der Standard reports.
Der Stanford previously reported that the unofficial price had earlier figured at 500 million euro.
In September, Sberbank signed a legally binding agreement to purchase 100% of VBI for 1x equity. At the moment of the signing, OEVAG owned 51% of VBI's shares, German DZ Bank and WGZ Bank owned 24.5%, and French Banque Populaire Caisse d'Epargne also owned 24.5%.
The agreement says that the price of the shares could range from 585 million euro to 645 million, depending on VBI's financial results in 2011. Current VBI shareholders could have received dividends for January-September of this year, Sberbank's deputy chief Sergei Gorkov said. However, due to the situation in Hungary, where a decision was made on easy terms for repaying mortgage loans, the bank incurred losses in that country and no dividends were paid - instead, money was put toward offsetting losses.
Gorkov said that Sberbank is not discussing the possibility of lowering the purchase price for VBI - it is fixed at 585 million euro. A source familiar with the situation said that there was not talk of the cost of the deal, but of improving its conditions.
Before the agreement was signed, the price discussed exceeded 700 million euro. It was subsequently lowered.
The deal for purchasing VBI is expected to wrap up by the end of 2011, with a final deadline of February 15, 2012. Hungarian and Ukrainian regulators have not yet granted permission for the deal.
VBI is the Eastern European subdivision of Oesterreichische Volksbanken AG (OEVAG), with offices in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Romania and Ukraine. The Romanian subdivision was not included in the deal.
In December of this year, Sberbank wrapped up a deal to acquire 99.15% of Swiss SLB Commercial Bank AG from OJSC Lukoil . Using this deal as a basis, Sberbank expects to develop its syndicated loan and trade financing business, as well as a number of its products for major corporate clients, in Europe.
Sberbank is set to shell out 75.350 million Swiss francs (around $80.5 million) for the SLB. The cost of the deal could subsequently be adjusted based on the results of SLB's financial report.
Sberbank is still interested in two other markets - Turkey and Poland. However, the bank has suspended negotiations on acquiring assets in these countries due to instability in financial markets and uncertainty over the development of the external economic situation.