MinFin expects sale of Otkritie Bank to VTB to go through before end-2022
MOSCOW. July 15 (Interfax) - The Russian Finance Ministry expects a deal for the sale of the Otkritie Bank to VTB to close before the end of 2022, Deputy Russian Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev told reporters.
"We still work on the assumption it will happen before the end of the year," he said.
The authorities decided to merge Otkritie with VTB after sanctions were imposed on major Russian banks. RNKB, the largest bank in Crimea, will be included in the perimeter of VTB Group as a separate legal entity. The Central Bank intends to sell Otkritie at the market valuation, with discussions currently ongoing about the parameters of the sale, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said earlier.
"We've started to draft a decree on RNKB. We are giving it our final approval, and I hope we'll submit it to the government, then to the president," Moiseyev said.
He did not disclose how the deal might be financed. "By and large it is as the CBR has said from the point of view of the details. Let's just say it will probably be a deal without the Russian Federal Property Agency's involvement," he said.
The Central Bank is considering selling Otkritie Group to VTB as it believes their merger is the best available option, CBR first deputy governor Vladimir Chistyukhin told the Vedomosti newspaper on July 14.
"We are now considering selling Otkritie Group to VTB Bank. The group that combines the bank, nongovernmental pension fund Otkritie, Rosgosstrakh and a number of other companies. We would like to do a market appraisal of the value of this business, for which professional appraisers will be hired," Chistyukhin said.
"We're proceeding from the conditions in which we operate. The market that exists today is the market that we're considering. Yes, probably, to some degree the total value of the business could have changed. But it seems to us that to provide the best possibilities for the development of the banking business of both Otkritie Group and VTB Group their merger would be best," Chistyukhin said.
The CBR acquired Otkritie FC Bank in 2017 after bailing it out using a new process involving the specially created Banking Sector Consolidation Fund. The bank received a capital injection of 456 billion rubles from the CBR, which hoped to recover some of this money by selling Otkritie's shares and through the courts.
As of the end of February, Otkritie Group included the insurance companies Rosgosstrakh and Rosgosstrakh Life; Otkritie Investments, a brand that includes brokerage products and Otkritie Management Company; NPF Otkritie; Open Leasing LLC and Otkritie Factoring LLC.