A memorandum has already been signed between the bank and potential investors from Poland, and a meeting with representatives of the National Bank of Ukraine and the Office of the President is also planned.
An investor was found for Sens Bank (formerly Alfa-Bank) in Poland. He can buy out the bank, which is now owned by sub-sanctioned Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven. This was stated in an interview with FinClub by Simeon Dyankov, a trustee who received the right to manage shares of the owners of the financial institution.
According to him, a meeting with representatives of the National Bank of Ukraine and the Office of the President is to be held in the near future, during which, probably, further actions of the parties will be agreed.
Both I and the Polish investor have already sent letters of intent to the NBU. We signed a relevant memorandum and started preparations for due diligence,” said Simeon Dyankov.
He noted that at the first stage of the agreement with the investor, it is planned to reduce the share of sanctioned shareholders in Sens Bank. Their full withdrawal from the capital of the financial institution is scheduled for the second stage.
“Shareholders are ready to sell their shares. But we need to conduct due diligence and, based on its results, decide who will own what in the new bank. Agree on the next steps. We are interested in moving quickly. The path is not easy,” he said.
Simeon Dyankov also said that he would try to make sure that after the first stage of the exit of Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and other sanctioned shareholders from the capital of Sens Bank, their shares in the institution did not exceed 10%.
Recall that at the end of December 2022, Focus in the article “Bad reputation. What the National Bank is preparing for Sens Bank and the companies of the oligarch Fridman” found out that nationalization is actually the only option for the renamed Sens Bank to continue working in Ukraine. For example, CASE Ukraine Associate Expert Evgeny Dubogryz believes that nationalization is the easiest way to change bank owners now”
“During the war, there are very low chances to sell such a large bank by Ukrainian standards to any respectable strategic investor. Therefore, nationalization is indeed the easiest way to change bank owners now,” he said.
Nevertheless, on March 10, 2023, it became known that their longtime business partner Andrey Kosogov could buy out the bank from Russian billionaires. Thus, according to the Financial Times, the transaction price may be about 2.3 billion dollars.
Focus also said that due to sanctions against the owners of Alfa-Bank, the National Bank recommended that banks carefully analyze their financial transactions with Alfa-Bank.
