UPDATE: CEO: Russia’s Sberbank privatization not on govt’s agenda

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MOSCOW, May 27 (PRIME) -- The privatization of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank is not on the agenda of the government, CEO German Gref said at an annual general meeting of the bank’s shareholders on Friday.

“The issue is not on the agenda now. The president told us that the time has not come, therefore we do not start this topic,” Gref said.

The privatization should not be expected to take place until 2018, Gref told daily newspaper Izvestiya in an interview published earlier on Friday.

“I think so far that there will be no privatization neither this, nor next year, and then we will see. Sure, we must bear in mind that it will be quite difficult to privatize us under sanctions. But in general, we support a sale of a part of the central bank’s stake and we are ready for that,” Gref said.

He also said that the privatization issue is political and does not depend on him personally.

“The government backed this (privatization) but the president said that the time has not come… We certainly need a political decision in order to start privatization,” Gref said.

According to Gref, he would support a reduction of the central bank’s stake in Sberbank to 25% from the current 52.32%.

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