Report: Govt plans to use rainy day fund to buy Sberbank from cbank

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (PRIME) -- The Russian government plans to use the country’s National Wealth Fund to buy the central bank’s stake in Sberbank, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing banker and a source familiar with the plan.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that Russia was discussing whether the central bank should continue to hold a controlling stake in the country’s largest lender Sberbank, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

The second source said that under the plan the central bank would transfer any profit it earned from the sale of Sberbank to the state budget. A third source, a well-placed financial market insider, said the same.

The first two sources did not say how much the government, via the Finance Ministry, was ready to pay for the central bank’s stake in Sberbank.

The central bank currently owns 50% plus one share in Sberbank, which is worth 2.8 trillion rubles based on Sberbank’s current market capitalization.

The Finance Ministry, which is managing the National Wealth Fund, declined to comment. The central bank also declined to comment.

Oleg Osipov, spokesman for Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, told Reuters that the government was continuing to discuss the issue but that no final decision had been made.

(62.1673 – U.S. $1)

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