Russia’s TCS Group may buy local Credit Europe Bank

MOSCOW, Feb 9 (PRIME) -- Russian businessman Oleg Tinkov’s TCS Group is interested in buying Credit Europe Bank, beneficiary owned by Turkish businessman Husnu Ozyegin, but has not received an official offer yet, Tinkov told PRIME on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Kommersant business daily reported citing banking sources that Credit Europe Bank had been put up for sale due to worsening of the Russian–Turkish relations, and a sale of the bank with a small discount to capital is preliminarily being discussed. The bank’s capital amounted to 20.8 billion rubles as of January 1 under Russian Accounting Standards.

“We have not yet received an official invitation to take part in a tender. If this tender is carried out, we will be very interested to take part in it. Credit Europe Bank is a quality asset, and we are obviously interested in it. The main thing here is that we are able to implement this deal. Given the current market’s condition, not everyone is able to do it,” Tinkov said.

A source in Alfa-Bank has confirmed that Credit Europe Bank is put up for sale. Alfa-Bank has also not received an official offer, but it is not interested in merger and acquisition deals now as the bank is focused on an organic growth, the source said.

(76.8614 rubles – U.S. $1)

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