YEREVAN, September 28. / ARKA /. Russian business daily ‘Kommersant’ said the Bank of Cyprus has completed the sale of its 100% stake in its Russian subsidiary – Uniastrum – to Artem Avetisyan (ethnic Armenian businessman, based in Russia), for 7 million euros.
The decision to sell its Russian operations, announced in July, is part of the Bank of Cyprus’s strategy of focusing on core businesses and markets but “does not affect the Bank’s presence in Russia through its two representative offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg,” reads an announcement issued by the Bank on Monday.
“With the disposal of this major overseas banking subsidiary, the Group has reached another milestone in its deleveraging and de-risking strategy, and has eliminated future potential risks relating to its Russian banking operations, including any liquidity risks,” the announcement continues.
According to the daily’s source, if the bank fails to begin making profit in the near future (in the eight months of 2014 it suffered 5.6 billion rubles under IFRS, and 3.9 billion rubles under Russian Accounting System (RAS), the new owner will have to replenish capital up to 2 billion rubles.
Uniastrum Bank is a mid-sized universal bank in terms of assets with a wide network of branches with the focus on lending and cash management services for companies and organizations, small businesses and attraction of deposits.
According to the Banki.ru, on September 1, 2015 the bank’s net assets stood at 55.60 bln rubles (94th in Russia), capital (calculated in accordance with the requirements of the Russian Central Bank) was worth 5.44 billion rubles; loan portfolio stood at 38 16 billion drams and obligations to the population at 30.28 billion rubles. -0-
