Report: Russia’s VTB shares may grow 25% if West lifts sanctions

MOSCOW, Apr 4 (PRIME) -- Shares of Russia’s second largest bank VTB are significantly underpriced, and may spike by 25% if the Western sanctions are lifted. VTB CEO Andrei Kostin said in an interview to Bloomberg TV broadcast Monday.

“We still believe that stocks of VTB are very much undervalued. We believe that if and when sanctions are removed there will be substantial growth of the prices of VTB,” he said adding that if the sanctions are removed, the bank’s shares may immediately grow by 25%.

VTB expects that sanctions may be softened in July, including sanctions imposed on the banking sector, and the E.U. sanctions may be lifted earlier than the U.S. ones.

The low price makes situation for possible privatization unfavorable. “We are very cautious in our approach (to privatization)…We are not saying that we will privatize, say, in next month, in May, or even this year,” he said.

“The government should decide whether it is better to sell at this (low) level of prices or to wait a little bit longer,” he said.

The Federal State Property Management Agency currently holds 60.93% in VTB Bank. The government plans to privatize a 10.9% stake in the bank.

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