UPDATE2: Russian cbank to repeat auction for Asia-Pacific Bank ‘20

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MOSCOW, Mar 14 (PRIME) -- An auction to sell Asia-Pacific Bank has failed, and the central bank plans to try again in 2020 with a wide range of investors, the authority said in a statement on Thursday.

“An open auction to sell the shares of Asia-Pacific Bank owned by the central bank is qualified unsuccessful because none of the participants admitted by the central bank to the auction took part in it,” the central bank said.

The central bank launched bailout of Asian-Pacific Bank in April 2018. The regulator bought a 9 billion ruble issue of additional shares of the bank and acquired 99.9% in it. The authority planned to sell the bank for 6 billion rubles through an open auction in March. Credit Bank of Moscow and Sovcombank were given admission to the auction.

Sovcombank CEO Dmitry Gusev told PRIME the bank did not participate in the auction because of a high price. “Unfortunately, even taking into account significant synergies with Sovcombank and the desire to strengthen our presence in the Far East, the lowest price of the auction was too high for us.”

The central bank’s Deputy Chairman Vasily Pozdyshev said Asian-Pacific Bank could not cost less than 6 billion rubles in the current situation.

“Participants did not enter the auction, therefore, the auction was declared cancelled. During preparations for the auction, we did not rule out such a scenario… The central bank believes that in the current situation, Asia-Pacific Bank cannot cost less than 6 billion rubles,” he said.

(65.5890 rubles – U.S. $1)

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