Czech Home Credit group exits capital of Russian Home Credit and Finance Bank, remaining 49.5% stake becomes treasury

MOSCOW. Aug 26 (Interfax) - The Czech Republic's Home Credit group has exited the capital of Russian Home Credit and Finance Bank, transferring the credit institution's own 49.5% stake.

HCF Bank assumed ownership of the stake on August 24, according to data in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

PPF Group and Home Credit in mid-May announced closing an agreement to sell their banking assets and subsidiaries in Russia to a group of Russian investors led by former RTS head Ivan Tyryshkin.

Home Credit sold 49.5% of the shares in HCF Bank to local investors at the end of May 2022. Tyryshkin then received 9.91% of HCF Bank, with Ibrahim Zagidulin, Yelena Martynenko, Violetta Chaika, and Dmitry Chemendryakov receiving 9.9% each.

Prior to this, the group sold 49.5% each in Russian IC Home Credit Insurance and the microcredit company Kupi ne Kopi [Buy Don't Save] to the same group of investors. Each of the individuals received 9.9% of the insurance and microcredit companies.

The Czech group lost control in the bank, insurance, and microcredit companies in mid-June, transferring 1% each to Georgian citizen Avigdor Yardeni.

PPF Group announced in June that it had sold controlling stakes in the Russian subsidiaries for around 26.4 billion rubles as part of the first part of the deal. The first phase included selling 50.5% each of HCF Bank, Home Credit Insurance, and Kupi ne Kopi, as well as the entirety of Forward Leasing and Vsegda.Da [Always.Yes], which Tyryshkin bought.

The second part of the transaction envisages the group selling the remaining stakes in the Russian divisions for 16.4 billion rubles, which should be completed before November 2023, PPF Group noted earlier. Meantime, under certain conditions, the seller and the buyer have the right to expedite the transaction settlement, which could result in the price being reduced by 11.1 billion rubles.

HCF Bank was a subsidiary of the Home Credit N.V. holding, which is part of the PPF international group. The largest beneficiary was Czech entrepreneur Petr Kellner, who died in a plane crash in March 2021. It became known in the autumn of 2021 that PPF had put HCF Bank up for sale.

HCF Bank ranked 30th in terms of assets in 2021 in the Interfax-100 ranking prepared by the Interfax Center for Economic Analysis.