Russia’s B&N Group not to buy Sviaz-Bank, Globexbank

MOSCOW, Aug 3 (PRIME) -- Russia’s B&N Group has not bid for Sviaz-Bank and Globexbank from state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB), VEB CEO Sergei Gorkov told reporters on Wednesday.

“There are some interested parties, I cannot name them now as it would be wrong. There are several of them,” he said.

But B&N banking group is not interested in the assets, he said.

VEB had to bail out Sviaz-Bank and Globexbank during the 2008 crisis and received over 200 billion rubles from the central bank at that time. In early 2015, the government said the assets were non-core for VEB, and VEB initially planned to sell the banks to the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA), but later dropped the plan.

On Monday, Vedomosti business daily reported that B&N Group was interested in the two banks. But the central bank’s Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina doubted the deal’s reasonability and offered VEB to search other contenders, the business daily said.

(66.8816 rubles – U.S. $1)

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