VTB to launch privatization road show Feb 7
MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) - VTB will begin a road show in Europe and the United States on Monday amid privatization plans, a source familiar with the situation told Interfax.
"VTB will be having meetings with investors in Europe and the United States in the privatization framework from February 7 to 13," this source said.
Two other sources from financial sources have confirmed this. One of them said the meetings could see the size of the planned share-interest sale increase from the current 10%."If investor demand is large, then the volume of the package to be sold might be increased, since the bank has permission from the authorities to sell up to 20% in 2011," he said.
Both the VTB press service and the bank's CFO Herbert Moos have declined to comment.
The outcome of negotiations with investors is slated for discussion at a meeting of the VTB supervisory board February 14, one source said.
Currently, 85.5% of VTB shares is state-owned. 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 leg by the U.S. investment fund TPG. But VTB left open the possibility that the shares might be sold on the open market.
The placement organizer is Merrill Lynch.
Deputy Russian Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin, who is also the country's finance minister and head of the VTB supervisory board, said this week that the Russian government wants to sell 20% of the bank's shares in two phases in 2011. "We will witness the sale of a package of about 20% of VTB shares this year," Kudrin said.
Ten percent of the stock had been slated to be sold off last year, but the sale was moved to 2011, Kudrin said. "We wanted to sell the first 10% last year, and now we are looking for better offers," he said.
The government is also looking to sell off 7.6% of the stock in Sberbank of Russia in 2011-2013.
Sberbank figures to have this accomplished before the end of 2011, and reckons the 7.6% of shares will be sold in stages, considering the sale of the VTB shares, Sberbank President German Gref has said. "The list of investors might coincide, so it would probably be necessary to work on getting everyone in agreement," Gref said.