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EBRD acquires stakes in two Russian banks
EBRD invests $8 million for stake in Uraltransbank
New finance will increase focus on micro and small business loans
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is investing up to $8
million to acquire a minority stake in Uraltransbank, the third such
investment in a Russian regional bank this year.
The EBRD will subscribe to a new issue of Uraltransbank ordinary shares to
secure a 25 percent stake in its share capital and corresponding voting rights
– plus one share.
At a signing ceremony in Moscow, Kurt Geiger, Business Group Director of the
EBRD’s Financial Institutions team, said the Bank welcomed the commitment of
Uraltransbank’s management to increase transparency and set high corporate
governance standards with the aim of turning it into a western-style financial
institution.
At the end of 2002, Uraltransbank joined the EBRD’s Russia Small Business Fund
(RSBF) programme, becoming one of the banks through which the EBRD provides
loans to small, medium and micro businesses in Russia.
At the same time, Uraltransbank became one of the participants in the Trade
Facilitation Programme set up by the EBRD to speed up and simplify east-west
trade. Last summer, the EBRD made a $3 million, five-year loan to the bank as
a further encouragement for its small-business lending in the Urals that will
allow it to lengthen the maturity on loans to the private sector.
The new investment will increase the EBRD’s exposure to Uraltransbank to $22.3
million. Uraltransbank, which was set up in 1990, is based in Ekaterinburg, at
the heart of one of Russia’s most important industrial regions. In mid-2004,
it ranked as Russia’s 141st -largest banks in terms of total assets.
This transaction marks the third investment by the EBRD in the capital of
Russian regional banks this year. The EBRD acquired a minority stake in
Centre-Invest Bank, based in Rostov-on-the-Don last summer and has also just
agreed to acquire 25 per cent plus one share of the capital of Sibacadembank,
based in Novosibirsk.
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EBRD invests $10 million in Russia’s Sibacadembank
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has acquired a blocking
minority stake in the leading private bank in western Siberia, Sibacadembank,
in a move designed to strengthen this Russian regional bank’s capital base as
it expands corporate and retail lending throughout Siberia.
The EBRD has agreed to pay up to 285 million roubles (about $10 million) for
25 per cent of Sibacadembank’s voting rights plus one share. It will do so by
means of a subscription to the bank’s newly issued ordinary shares.
The project will promote competition in the banking sector by giving support
to a private regional bank which is developing dynamically in its local market
and expanding the range of services it offers to clients.
The EBRD participation in the capital of Sibacadembank aims to set high
standards for corporate governance and show other regional banks that a
well-managed independent bank can compete successfully with nationwide banks
in its niche market.
Sibacadembank was established in 1990 with headquarters in the western
Siberian capital of Novosibirsk. At the end of June 2004, it ranked as
Russia’s 99th largest bank in terms of total assets as measured by Russian
Accounting Standards.
It has since 2003 been one of the banks through which the EBRD lends money to
micro enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses as part of the Russia
Small Business Fund (RSBF) programme. The RSBF has since 1994 disbursed over
$1.8 billion in loans to more than 214,000 borrowers in the country.
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