Alfa-Bank Ukraine to change name to Sense Bank

MOSCOW. July 11 (Interfax) - Alfa-Bank Ukraine's plans to change its name to Sense Bank, as per the Sense SuperApp that was rolled out at the end of 2020.

The Ukrainian Finclub publication reported the information, which the bank confirmed in a disclosure filed with the National Securities and Stock Market Commission regarding a meeting of shareholders to be held in absentia on August 12 with the rebranding on the agenda.

The shareholders will also vote on amendments to the charter, statute on the general meeting of shareholders and corporate governance principles.

Former Bulgarian Finance Minister Simeon Djankov, who received the right to vote with the bank's majority stake with the National Bank of Ukraine's consent in mid-April, said earlier that the board of Alfa-Bank Ukraine would ask shareholders to approve rebranding.

Alfa-Bank Ukraine says its largest shareholders currently include Andrey Kosogov, who owns a 40.9614% stake in the bank through a proxy after receiving the 20.9659% and 16.3239% stakes from sanctioned German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev. Mikhail Fridman's stake is at 32.8632%, Petr Aven's at 12.4018%, UniCredit S.p.A. has 9.9%, and Mark Foundation for Cancer Research has 3.8736%. Djankov is the NBU's trustee managing Kosogov's stake and the shares of blacklisted Fridman and Aven.

According to NBU data, Alfa-Bank Ukraine was Ukraine's fifth largest bank by total assets with UAH 107.35 billion as of June 1, 2022. The assets decreased by UAH 5.22 billion in May and by UAH 2.19 billion while it provisioned an additional UAH 1.04 billion and UAH 0.78 billion, respectively.

Net losses were UAH 383.2 million in May and UAH 307.4 million in April, however the bank had net profit of UAH 30.1 million for January-May.