Baltic States – CIS, Banks, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Lithuania, Loan

"The first round of due diligence has happened and we have received indications of interest", Stephen Young, a senior partner at KPMG Baltics said in an interview with the news agency Bloomberg on October 17. “We would expect a reasonable proportion to be sold”, reports LETA.

Krajbanka is seeking to recover LVL 167 million of missing assets, regulators estimated in 2011. It will pursue any transactions it deems were illegal or contravened the bank’s interests and has filed complaints in courts outside of the Baltic States, said Young, declining to elaborate.

Latvia took Krajbanka over in November after Lithuanian regulators seized its parent Bankas Snoras AB on claims assets had disappeared. Lithuania and Snoras have filed criminal and civil suits in London against the bank’s former owners, Vladimir Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas, for alleged fraud. Both deny the charges.

Latvia and Lithuania are working together in their search for assets and money transfers, with “competing cooperation” occurring in areas where there’s a shared interest, explained Young.

KPMG has sold 26 assets including a yacht, cars and real estate, and has another 500 properties left to auction, according to Oskars Firmanis, a spokesman for the administrator.

The lender has paid back about LVL 50 million to the state, leaving LVL 286 million outstanding to the deposit insurance fund, said Firmanis.