Management, consortium with Interros participation to buy Tochka Bank, to consolidate 100%
MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - Senior management of Tochka Bank, a digital bank that provides a range of financial and non-financial services for entrepreneurs and enterprises, and a consortium of investors that includes Vladimir Potanin's Interros and other large companies, intend to consolidate 100% of Tochka's shares, following Monday's auction for 90.01% of the shares owned by Trust Bank, Tochka Bank and Interros said in r statements.
In order to accomplish this, the consortium will exercise the pre-emptive right held by Tochka's minority shareholder, Catalytic People, which the consortium controls. The consortium currently controls 9.99% of Tochka's shares through Catalytic People, which the Filev family, owners of S7 Group, had previously owned.
Besides Interros, the consortium includes other currently unspecified companies.
A number of technology companies, particularly VK , are also considering participation in the consortium, according to Tochka and Interros' respective press releases.
Trust Bank, which owns 90.01% of Tochka, held an auction to sell the package on Monday. The sale price was 41.5 billion rubles, with starting price of 24.7 billion rubles. The deal should close in Q3 2023.
"Based on the auction results, Tochka's investors and management decided to exercise Catalytic People's pre-emptive right and purchase the main stake in Tochka from Trust Bank. The stake will be purchased at a price determined as a result of the auction," Interros said.
"The current Tochka team, its original team, will continue to manage the business," Interros said. At the same time, according to the auction results, none of the investors, including Interros, will have control over the company."
Andrei Zavadskikh, Tochka's general director, said Tochka's management had been in dialogue with a number of potential buyers from among the bidders before coming up with the initiative to create the consortium. The dialogue showed that continuing to operate on a standalone basis would be difficult.
"So I'm pleased that several leading Russian investors responded to our proposal to create a consortium of investors - for example, the Interros group, which has been a successful financial investor in various forms of partnerships in Russia and the world. VK also showed an interest in participating in the consortium," Zavadskikh said.
"There is no majority investor in the consortium, which gives the Tochka team maximum freedom for business development and guarantees the preservation of Tochka's culture and team," he said.
Tochka plans in time to strengthen its shareholder structure, partly by bringing in international companies, Zavadskikh said.
"The consortium of large investors enabled us to continue changing the entrepreneurial world by creating new technological products and services. And, most importantly, we will preserve ourselves: our special client approach and product. We are grateful to Interros and other investors for their support, trust and willingness to share our values," Zavadskikh said.
Interros General Director Sergei Batekhin said the holding received an offer to join the consortium from Tochka's management. "This converges with our strategy of targeted investments in high-tech banking and digital services. In all cases, we are not interested in shareholder control, but in opportunities for investment in unique technologies," Batekhin said.
"I believe the involvement of Interros as a long-term financial investor will provide Tochka with the stability needed to successfully deliver its development strategy. And the absence of control by any of the potential investors, including Interros and VK, guarantees the flexibility of its business-models and broad opportunities for partnership with all market participants," he said.
Internet holding VK told Interfax that it had received an offer to buy a stake in Tochka, but it did not say how much it planned to buy.
A source familiar with the deal said that participation in the consortium could be an interesting option for VK to develop the SME segment by integrating financial instruments into its ecosystem. According to its latest reporting, investments by SMEs in advertising on VK platforms had doubled, the source said.