Ministry: Evrofinance Mosnarbank wants to buy out shares from govt

MOSCOW, Aug 27 (PRIME) -- Top managers of Evrofinance Mosnarbank want to acquire 50% plus two shares of the bank from the Federal State Property Management Agency, but the government has not yet received a written application for the operation, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev told reporters on Tuesday.

“Evrofinance Mosnarbank’s management claims for VTB Bank and Gazprombank’s shares. No written application has been received, there are talks,” he said.

In March, the U.S. added Evrofinance Mosnarbank to the sanctions list for its connection with Venezuelan state oil and gas company PDVSA. Venezuela’s national Development Fund, Fonden holds 49.99% in the bank.

VTB Bank gave away its 17.02% stake in Evrofinance Mosnarbank to the Federal State Property Management Agency in March–June. Gazprombank holds 20% in the bank directly and 5% through Novfintekh, and said earlier that it was also willing to transfer the shareholding to the agency.

Moiseyev said that there are other banks interested in the shares, or the stake can be transferred to Promsvyazbank.

The government is creating a bank to handle defense order contracts in the conditions of Western sanctions on the basis of Promsvyazbank.

“A decision will be made by the government… To my mind, there is no sense in splitting the shareholding, which should be sold to a strategic investor in a single lot. Strictly speaking, there is no difference (who will buy the stake), the issue is that the managers should act in a convenient way for the Venezuelan side,” Moiseyev said.

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