Russian govt buys 50% in Sberbank from cbank for 2.14 tln rbl

MOSCOW, Apr 10 (PRIME) -- The government has bought 50% in the Russia’s top bank Sberbank from the central bank at 189.44 rubles per share through the Finance Ministry, spending 2.139 trillion rubles from the National Wealth Fund on the deal, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.

In total, the authority bought 11,293,474,000 common shares in the bank.

“The deal was carried out at the weighted average price defined by results of trade on the Moscow Exchange in the period from March 9, 2020 through April 7, 2020 and amounting to 189.44 rubles per share. The sum of the deal reached 2,139,435.71 million rubles,” the statement read.

The central bank said in a statement that it has retained one share in Sberbank to sign a shareholder agreement with the government. The regulator will transfer the share no later than on May 6 in accordance with the contract.

In mid-March, President Vladimir Putin signed two bills that cover the central bank’s sale of its stake in Sberbank to the government. The first bill introduces a shareholder agreement that guarantees consistency of approaches to management of Sberbank. The second bill allows the regulator to keep 300 billion rubles from the deal and to compensate for losses of up to 200 billion rubles in 2020–2023 through sales of banks that it had been bailing out.

(74.6050 rubles – U.S. $1)

End