Baltic States – CIS, Banks, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Good for Business, Latvia, Russia

The main buyer of Sberbank's Ukrainian subsidiary will be British citizen Said Gutseriev and a Belarus company that belongs to him, Norvik Banka said in a statement to the press.

Information on the internet website of Russia’s Sberbank says that the transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2017 after getting approval from the financial and competition regulators.

"This deal will make it possible to offer Ukrainian clients service built on European principles of quality, transparency and accessibility, while maintaining the technological level of the bank created by Sberbank of Russia," Norvik Banka said.

Along with the main deal, Norvik Banka is planning a number of measures to reduce its presence in the Russian banking market, where it owns Norvik Bank.

"This will make it possible to increase the effectiveness of investments and eliminate a number of political risks related to the geography of the bank's operations. The diversity of investors will make it possible to form a balanced consortium that will take into account the interests of all parties involved, which will make it possible to effectively develop the bank in European markets and Belarus," Norvik Banka said.

"The bank being acquired has excellent infrastructure," in which former owner Sberbank of Russia" invested hundreds of millions of dollars," Gutseriev was quoted as saying. "This is a solid foundation for development and quality growth of the project. My experience suggests that by deciding to participate in it all of the members of the consortium are making a very farsighted and lucrative investment, and this will enable the bank itself to take a big step forward and implement many advanced projects, not only in Ukraine but in the neighboring European countries as well," Gutseriev said in the press release.

Ukraine’s Sberbank is the sixth largest bank in the country and its assets reach USD 2.2 bln (EUR 2.03 billion). It has more than 150 branches and almost one million customers.

Norvik Banka is the seventh largest bank in Latvia by assets with more than 150,000 customers. Norvik Banka closed last year with EUR 11.756 mln preliminary profit, recovering from a loss in 2015. The bank's assets contracted by 11.8% or EUR 118.259 mln y-o-y from EUR 1.006 bln at the end of 2015 to EUR 887.401 mln on December 31, 2016.

The controlling stake in Norvik Banka belongs to British citizen Grigory Guselnikov.