According to Austria’s Raiffeisenbank‘s press service, the bank signed a contract in Vienna for the acquisition of a 100% stake in Impexbank. The buyer is going to pay up to US$550 million plus a possible price adjustment according to revaluation of Impexbank’s real estate assets. The transaction still needs to be approved by the antimonopoly authorities in Austria and Russia. After this acquisition, Raiffeisenbank is going to become the largest foreign owned banking group in Russia. Standard & Poor’s rating agency said it placed Impexbank’s rating on the CreditWatch list with positive outlook, following this announcement.
Meanwhile, the state-controlledVneshtorgbank hasacquired a 98% stake in Ukraine’s Mriya Bank. According to Vneshtorgbank’s CEO Andrei Kostin, the bank signed a contract for acquisition of a 98% stake in Ukraine’s Mriya Bank on Jan. 31. Vneshtorgbank signed a three-month letter of intent to buy Mriya Bank in late October. The Russian bank sees the acquisition as a further step forward in its strategy to gain solid position on the developing Ukrainian banking market (Vneshtorgbank already has one unit – Vneshtorgbank-Ukraine present there). The value of the transaction was not disclosed. Mriya had total consolidated assets of US$356.8 million, which places it on the 26th position amount its local peers.