19 May 2020 12:05

CBM acquiring Vesta Bank, Rusnarbank from Region Group

MOSCOW. May 19 (Interfax) - Credit Bank of Moscow (CBM) has entered into agreements to acquire Vesta Bank and Rusnarbank from Region Group, CBM said.

The transactions are part of the partnership strategy of Roman Avdeyev's Rossium and Sergei Sudarikov's Region Group, the bank, which is controlled by Avdeyev, said.

Vesta specializes in working with small and medium businesses, and Rusnarbank specializes in auto finance.

"As a result of the deals to acquire Vesta and Rusnarbank, CBM will get expertise in areas that were previously not developed at the bank. A previously begun analysis of assets identified areas for increasing the efficiency of the existing business. Thanks to the consolidation of product and technology platforms, we will launch new businesses without additional investments," CBM first deputy CEO Mikhail Polunin was quoted as saying in the press release.

CBM has already become the sole owner of Rusnarbank, according to material events reported by the bank. CBM has not yet disclosed information on the acquisition of Vesta.

It was reported earlier that Region was thinking about including the operations of some of its lenders in the business of CBM. The group wholly owned Rusnarbank, Vesta and Far East Bank. There were no plans to include the latter in the deal with CBM. "As we anticipate, I've already said that this is probably not a big secret, we will soon possibly offer these banks [except Far East Bank] for sale to CBM. We see synergy," Region Group chairman Sergei Menzhinsky said in February.

Region Group and Rossium said in June 2019 that they had agreed to appraise assets with a view to a possible merger.

Avdeyev previously owned 90.1% of Rossium. Estimates based on CBM data indicate that Sudarikov's Region Group now owns 17.12% of Rossium and Avdeyev's stake has decreased to 72.98%. Sudarikov controls 90% of Region Investment Company and Andrei Zhuikov holds 10%.

Rossium is the principal shareholder of CBM with 56.07%. Region Investment Company holds 6.65% of CBM, and nongovernmental pension funds controlled by Sudarikov and Zhuikov hold another 6.08% of the bank. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development owns 3.64% of CBM.

CBM was Russia's sixth largest bank by assets at the end of the first quarter of 2020, with 2.836 trillion rubles, according to the Interfax-100 ranking of the country's lenders. Rusnarbank ranked 168th with 13 billion rubles in assets, and Vesta ranked 224th with 5.6 billion rubles.