VEDOMOSTI. Rostpromstroybank’s major shareholder Igor Kim divested his 19.9% stake in the bank’s charter capital (20.01% of voting shares) to management investment company Prosperity Capital Management (PCM). The deal was transacted on March 27, the bank’s press office reported.
Before the deal, Kim owned 98.7% of the bank’s charter capital (99.1% of voting shares). According to PCM executive manager Ivan Mazalov, the investment fund mulls upping its interest to a blocking stake. An agreement to this effect was reached with Kim, but initially authorization is needed from the Federal Anti-Trust Service and the Bank of Russia. A PCM representative will be placed on the bank’s BoD in the near future, Mazalov added. The parties did not disclose the transaction price. CIG analyst Ruslan Migunov assessed a blocking stake in the bank at around Rub 350 mln. The investment fund also holds shares of VTB and several Kazakh banks, Mazalov noted.
According to Migunov, the transaction is beneficial for both parties: the investment fund’s participation in Rostpromstroybank’s capital will enable the latter to benefit when tapping external capital markets and lower the cost of borrowings, while PCM, after it buys another 25.01% interest in Rostpromstroybank, could bank on gaining a considerable equity position in one of the leading banks in Russia’s southern regions in 3 or 5 years. As PCM holds no major stakes in other Russian banks, as Antanta Capital’s Maxim Osadchy says, PCM entered the bank’s capital not as a strategic, but as a portfolio investor.
