Report: Tycoon Khoroshkovsky buys Ukrainian unit of Sberbank

KIEV, Nov 29 (PRIME) -- Ukrainian businessman Valery Khoroshkovsky is completing acquisition of the local affiliate of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, newswire Vesti Ukraine reported on Wednesday, citing banking sources.

“Ukrainian oligarch Khoroshkovky, who has been residing in Monaco, France since 2013, is to close a deal to acquire the business of Russia’s Sberbank in Ukraine,” Vesti said, adding that the deal will be closed in January–March 2018.

Khoroshkovky will likely rename the business due to reputational risks and change the headquarters location.

On March 23, Kiev introduced sanctions against local units of Sberbank and VTB Bank, and their subsidiaries VS Bank and BM Bank, respectively, as well as against VEB’s Prominvestbank. The sanctions prohibit any financial operations in favor of the affiliated entities, including the parent companies.

Sberbank previously said it had sold the Ukrainian affiliate to a consortium of Latvia’s Norvik Banka and a Belarusian private company, and expected the deal to be closed until the end of June. But on July 28, Ukraine’s central bank rejected a bid of the consortium of businessmen Said Gutseriyev and Grigory Guselnikov.

The sources cited by Vesti Ukraine said that Khoroshkovky started the negotiations after the deal with Gutseriyev and Guselnikov fell through.

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