6 Dec 2022 19:12

VTB deal to purchase Otkritie's assets to be completed by yearend - Russian deputy finance minister

MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) - The deal for VTB to purchase Otkritie's assets will be completed before the end of 2022, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev told journalists.

"People are working there, of course. I'm proceeding from it [the deal] happening [before the end of the year]," Moiseyev said.

VTB head Andrei Kostin said at the beginning of November that agreement on the parameters of the deal to purchase Otkritie was a matter of days. Kostin also assumed that the deal would be closed before the end of the year.

"Negotiations are practically at the closing stage, and now the valuation needs to be agreed on. I think that this is a matter of days, not even weeks, when we'll conclusively approve all parameters," Kostin told journalists on November 10.

"But, in principle, we have an understanding with the Central Bank on price, and all other issues have in principle already been settled. It can therefore be said that the deal is near delivery. Contractions have begun, in short," he said.

An insurance company and a private pension fund will be included in the deal, Kostin said.

"We believe that the bank [Otkritie] will exist for another year or year and a half, and then its brand will disappear," he said.

According to RBC, which is familiar with the materials of the valuator's presentation, which is auditing company Business Solutions and Technologies, formerly Deloitte, the market value of 100% of Otkritie's shareholder equity is 359-386 billion rubles.