CEO: VTB to decide on Ukrainian business sale or axe in 2017

MOSCOW, Mar 28 (PRIME) -- VTB wants to sell its Ukrainian unit at a high profit and will continue to think whether to sell it or continue curtailing business of the affiliate throughout 2017, CEO Andrei Kostin told reporters on Tuesday.

“We want a really good deal, a real sale deal. We see two ways, either to sell the bank, or to reduce the balance of the bank stage by stage,” Kostin said, adding that the VTB headquarters expects to make the decision in 2017.

He also said that VTB has not limited the payments in Ukraine.

Earlier in March, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko introduced sanctions against five Russian banks – Sberbank, VTB Ukraine, BM Bank, a unit of the Bank of Moscow, Prominvestbank and VS Bank of Sberbank – for a year, prohibiting them from disinvesting from the country, as well as barring Ukraine’s state-owned companies from depositing funds with the banks. Deputy Chairwoman of the National Bank of Ukraine Yekaterina Rozhkova said that Russian state banks should better sell their Ukrainian assets.

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