Minister says Russia should discuss sale of Sberbank, VTB

MOSCOW, Jan 13 (PRIME) -- The Russian government should resume discussions of privatization of largest state-run banks – Sberbank and VTB, which will improve the situation with capital adequacy of the banking system, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Wednesday at the Gaidar Forum.

“I think we should return to the issue of privatization of our largest banks with state participation, Sberbank and VTB. These assets are of high quality and are attractive for the whole world,” he said.

The privatization will drastically improve the situation with capital of the whole banking sector, he added.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the ministry expects to raise about 1 trillion rubles for state coffers in two years from privatization.

“We continue working to attract revenues and new funding sources…We are speaking about an increase of budget sources like privatization … We may receive about 1 trillion rubles in two years from additional fund raising from sales of state property. It is a realistic figure,” he said.

The federal budget for 2016 encompasses 90 billion rubles of revenue from privatization of state assets.

But Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said that privatization of Sberbank and VTB may face problems as Russian state-owned banks are under Western sanctions, and no foreign investor will buy their shares. “So it may be carried out as a sale of an individual package beyond the market,” he said.

Ulyukayev said that the foreign sanctions may hurt privatization, but there are technical possibilities to carry out such deals even under the sanction regime. There is also internal demand for the assets. “But we have to make a concept decision at first; we must solve legal and other restrictions. The technical side of the deal is not a problem,” he said.

(76.6041 rubles – U.S. $1)

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