KOMMERSANT. National Reserve Corporation that is controlled by former Duma member and entrepreneur Alexender Lebedev reduced its holding in the charter capital of National Reserve Bank from 78.2% to 73.7%, while Swiss UBS acquired a 4.5% interest, Kommersant business daily writes on Wednesday quoting National Reserve Bank data. Equity stakes held by the bank’s other shareholders remained unchanged: former NRB board chairman and current VEB Capital general director Yury Kudimov holds 18.38%, a 2.74% interest is in the hands of the Federal Agency for Federal Property Management and other shareholders own 0.68%.
Lebedev declined to comment on changes in the bank’s shareholding structure, and UBS declined to comment as well. A source close to the bank told the newspaper that the transaction is not an investment of UBS that became a nominal holder of the bank’s shares. A source close to UBS confirmed in an interview with the newspaper that in fact the international institution became a nominal holder of the shares, specifying that the shares were assigned to UBS’s Private Wealth Management, a company that manages private capital of large customers.
“Maybe, assigning a small stake to USB is a test transaction through which NRB will test the mechanism of nominal holding of shares by a large international financial depositary," believes Third Rome managing partner Andrey Movchan and he adds that this is a natural action for the owner who is going to develop his company and efficiently shield it against local risks associated with loop holes and grey areas of Russian legislation.
Last year NRB came into the limelight of Russian authorities because of the proceedings into the case about the withdrawal of assets from Rossiysky Capital in whose rehabilitation NRB participated in 2008—2009, the newspaper writes. Last November searches were conducted at NRB’s office. In April 2011 the prosecutors brought charges against former Rossiysky Capital management board chairwoman Irina Kireeva.
Previously Lebedev officially said he is prepared to distance himself from his banking assets by selling his equity stake or assigning his interest to nominal holders. However, experts noted that it will be difficult for NRB to find a buyer. Recently the Federal Agency for Federal Property Management failed to auction off its stake in NRB as no bids were entered.
