Italy's Generali could acquire shares in VB for $300 mln, TPG - for $100 mln
MOSCOW. Feb 7 (Interfax) - Italian financial group Generali could acquire $300 million in shares in Russia's VTB while the fund TPG could get $100 million the bank's charter capital, VTB said in a prospectus for share placement.
Based on the value of the bank's shares on February, Generali could purchase 8.6% of the packet for placement while TPG could get 2.9%.
After the transaction's completion, David Bonderman, cofounder of TPG Capital L.P. could join VTB's supervisory board, the prospectus said.
VTB's roadshow for the sale of 10% of the state share packet in the bank commenced on Monday.
Up to 1,046,054,133,732 shares in VTB are being placed during the roadshow. The shares will be distributed evenly between placement's two bookrunners (Deutsche Bank and VTB Capital), which will sell the shares to investors.
VTB's roadshow will last a week. Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and VTB Capital are organizing offers to purchase shares. VTB's supervisory board will discuss the results of investor negotiations on February 14.
The Russian business daily Vedomosti earlier reported on Monday, citing an unnamed source, that Generali could be the anchor investor in the placement of VTB's share. According to consultants on the transaction cited by the daily, the deal is expected to total no less than $3.5 billion.
The state currently owns 85.5% of VTB shares. Bank chief Andrei Kostin said not long ago that up to 10% of shares in what is Russia's second-largest bank would be privatized in the first half of this year. The plan had been for the buyer to be a pool of investors led by the U.S. investment fund TPG. But VTB left open the possibility that the shares might be sold on the open market. The outlook for a deal with TPG's participation remain unclear.
VTB raised about 206 billion rubles ($8 billion) in an IPO in May 2007.
The government had discussed sale of a minority stake in the bank to foreign investors even before then, in 2003-2004. Mediabanca, in which Generali is the leading shareholder, was named alongside the EBRD and IFC as a candidate to purchase the stake.
Generali is active in Russia and a host of Eastern European countries via its joint venture with Czech PPF - Generali PPF Holding - which owns Generali PPF Life Insurance LLC and Generali PPF General Insurance LLC.