KOMMERSANT. Gazprombank intends to sell its subsidiary, GPB-Mortgage. As Kommersant’s sources said, the bank is in talks with several buyers. Gazprombank Group decided to focus its efforts on mortgage business at one bank.
Gazprombank specified that at issue is not the sale of business, but the possible sale of a banking license. “In order to expand operations and streamline activities related to mortgage products the bank decided to consolidate mortgage business carried out by Gazprombank and GPB-Mortgage on Gazprombank’s balance sheet. The future of GPB-Mortgage’s license is being discussed," Gazprombank management board member Ekaterina Trofimova said.
For the record, in February 2007 Sovfintrade, a subsidiary bank of Gazprombank, was renamed GPB-Mortgage and until recently its core activity was to securitize mortgage loans, restructure and handle mortgage loans.
Such a decision was anticipated. “A decision to wind down GPB-Mortgage was adopted last year. I think that this is quite logical as it is economically unfeasible to roll out mortgage lending at two related financial institutions," said the newspaper’s source familiar with the situation.
