Gazprombank to audit Kyrgyzstan's biggest nationalized bank - Kyrgyz authorities
BISHKEK. Oct 17 (Interfax) - Gazprombank will evaluate Kyrgyzstan's biggest nationalized bank, Zalkar-Bank (formerly AsiaUniversalBank).
"We are now expecting a delegation from Gazprombank to study Zalkar-Bank's condition, its audit," Kyrgyzstan's Acting Prime Minister, First Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov told journalists on Monday.
He added that the Russian side's intentions to purchase a controlling packet of shares in Zalkar-Bank had been included in a memorandum signed in September 2011 during OJSC Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller's visit to Bishkek.
According to preliminary information, the Kyrgyz government hopes to make around 1.5 billion soma (over $30 million) (45.116 soma/$1 on October 17, 2011) from the bank.
AsiaUniversalBank was formed in 2002. After Kurmanbek Bakiyev came to power in 2005, his son Maxim Bakiyev joined the bank's managing board along with shareholders connected to him.
The bank acquired local Promstroibank in 2008, which has a network of savings outlets in Kyrgyzstan, and this made AsiaUniversalBank the biggest commercial bank in the country. After April 2010, AsiaUniversalBank was nationalized by the new authorities and renamed Zalkar-Bank.