CEO: Sberbank looks for buyer of Ukrainian affiliates actively

MOSCOW, Mar 21 (PRIME) -- Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank is actively looking for ways to sell its Ukrainian affiliates and leave the market, CEO German Gref told reporters on Tuesday.

“We are looking for options to leave the Ukrainian market as fast as possible today and I hope that the Ukrainian authorities will give us the chance. We are in a really active stage of consideration of this kind of projects,” Gref said.

Last week Ukraine prohibited five Russian banks – Sberbank, VTB Ukraine, BM Bank, a unit of the Bank of Moscow, Prominvestbank and VS Bank of Sberbank –from taking capital out of the country for a year, and barred Ukraine’s state-owned companies from depositing funds with the banks. Ukraine’s Deputy National Bank Chairwoman Yekaterina Rozhkova said that Russian state banks should better sell their Ukrainian assets.

Gref also said that Sberbank has to limit its operations in Ukraine because of attacks by radical activists.

He said that it is too early to assess Sberbank’s losses from the activities to undermine its Ukrainian operations, reserves against the Ukrainian asset losses cover about 70% of their value.

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