Translated material
Swedish package
Investment fund East Capital became a minority shareholder of Loko-Bank
The small Loko-Bank became a quarter foreign. In April, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) acquired a 15% stake in Loko-Bank, and last Friday it became known that the Swedish investment fund East Capital, which specializes in investing capital in the financial sectors of Eastern Europe, is buying more than 11% of its shares. As Loko-Bank said in a statement, “cooperation with East Capital will help support the bank’s growth strategy and increase its investment attractiveness, and will also improve corporate governance standards.” The parties did not disclose the cost of the transaction; most likely, the stake in Loko cost the Swedish investors no more than $15 million (as is known, when purchasing a 15% stake in the bank, IFC paid $20 million).Loko-Bank (according to RA Interfax, ranks 114th in terms of equity capital, capital - 1.5 billion rubles, assets - 8.8 billion) is engaged in lending to small and medium-sized businesses. Apparently, this market segment is the most interesting for the Swedish bank.
It is quite possible that the current East Capital deal will not be the last for the Swedish investment fund in the Russian banking market. As is known, the majority shareholder of the fund, the Swedish bank Svenska Handelsbanken, owns a subsidiary in Russia, Svenska Handelsbanken, registered only last year. While this “daughter” works mainly with Scandinavian companies, it does not have a Russian clientele. In early June, its head Raimo Valo announced his readiness to acquire minority stakes in several small Russian banks in order to subsequently select one or two from them that have a decent business, and apparently sell the shares of the rest: “In this case, we will buy time,” - stated Mr. Valo - Having received shares in banks, we will see how they will develop, and then we will buy one or two banks from among them.” It is quite possible that the transactions will be completed before the end of this year. Thus, Loko-Bank, which became the first contender for the right to completely transform into a foreign bank, does not have much time left to bring its business to a level acceptable to the buyer.
According to experts, the interest of foreign investors in small banks engaged in servicing small enterprises will continue to grow. After all, large Russian banks engaged in the most profitable business - servicing the population - have either already been sold or are actively cooperating with Western partners.