PRESS: Russian banks have no success in selling Ukrainian units

MOSCOW, Mar 24 (PRIME) -- Russian national top lender Sberbank’s deal to sell its Ukrainian units has failed, while potential buyers of VTB’s unit in Ukraine decreased the price offer to U.S. $50 million, Kommersant business daily reported Friday citing sources.

Talks to sell Sberbank’s Ukrainian business intensified in December 2016 after ICU Managing Director Makar Pasenyuk and businessman Igor Voronov joined them, one of the sources said.

Another source said the talks were held on behalf of Alexander Yaroslavsky, president of DCH group and former co-owner of Ukrsibbank.

In January, Pasenyuk offered to include a sale of a Roshen confectionery in the Russian city of Lipetsk in the deal to sell Sberbank’s Ukrainian business.

The deal was blocked at the presidential level, one of the sources said. The initial price was $680 million, but the talks lost sense for the Russian side after the price of $250 million for the Roshen confectionery with its real cost of $120–140 million was announced, the source said.

Sberbank declined to comment.

Pasenyuk has been also recently holding talks to buy VTB’s Ukrainian business, sources said. VTB sought to receive around $200 million for VTB Ukraine, but the bank’s portfolio is “quite troubled,” a source said. Another source said unspecified investors now offer $50 million for the asset.

State-owned Vnesheconombank (VEB) is also currently looking for a buyer of its Prominvestbank in Ukraine. CEO Sergei Gorkov said on Tuesday that the bank could make a final decision next week. Two or three potential buyers are interested in the bank, including Hungary’s OTP Bank, he said. According to Kommersant, Sergei Tron, head of the boxing federation in the Kiev region, and businessman Valery Khoroshkovsky are interested in Prominvestbank.

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