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Transcreditbank received more than Rostelecom

Transcreditbank (TCB) became the owner of 5.59% of ordinary shares of the long-distance communication operator Rostelecom. The bank received this block of shares as collateral for the loan. The bank does not say who exactly TKB provided the loan to. Market participants, however, do not exclude the possibility that KIT Finance Bank, which is one of the largest holders of Rostelecom shares, could have received a loan.

The banks themselves are not strangers to each other: until the middle of last year, companies included in the KIT Finance group appeared in Transcreditbank’s reporting as owners of about 10% of its shares. Currently, TKB indicates in its reporting only its main shareholder - JSC Russian Railways (75%), as well as nominee holders. Finally, the KIT-Finance leasing company Magistral-Finance is a key supplier of rolling stock for Russian Railways. So the business ties between the two banks and the natural monopoly are very close.

Before yesterday's announcement, Transcreditbank owned 4.88% of ordinary shares and 3.66% of the authorized capital of Rostelecom. Now the market value of the package owned by TKB is about 11.36 billion rubles. A bank source told Interfax that the Rostelecom shares were received as collateral for a loan issued to another bank as part of two repurchase transactions that took place within a month. The agency's interlocutor refused to name the bank to which TKB issued a loan secured by shares. According to market participants, the borrower of Transcreditbank could be KIT Finance Bank, which, together with the management company Leader, according to unofficial data, owns about 40% of Rostelecom shares.

KIT Finance declined to comment yesterday.

KIT Finance must repay bonds in the amount of 2 billion rubles in December of this year; for another loan for the same amount, at the end of September, investors will have the right to present securities for early repayment. If the bank does not reach an agreement with market participants, it is possible that the second loan will be put up for redemption. It turns out that in the coming months the bank needs to find about 4 billion rubles. This problem can be solved either with the help of injections of funds from shareholders, or by obtaining short-term loans. “KIT Finance” is generally very active in attracting money, for example, through repo transactions, and takes part in the placement of budget funds of the Ministry of Finance,” says the newspaper’s interlocutor in a Russian bank. In addition, according to unofficial information, in March of this year the bank managed to attract money from the Development Bank to its deposits.

“Over the past year, the bank has increased its portfolio of mortgage loans by 4.2 times, issuing loans at relatively low rates. Now the volume of assets of KIT-Finance is almost 120 billion rubles, a quarter of this amount comes from mortgages. The bank has repeatedly announced its plans to securitize pools of mortgage loans. Moreover, KIT-Finance has already completed two such transactions this year for a total amount of more than 11 billion rubles. The problem is that this is not enough for the bank,” says an analyst at a large Russian bank, who asked not to be named. As you know, the bank plans to carry out securitization on the domestic market in the amount of at least 100-200 million dollars by November. However, it will be quite difficult to do this given the current situation.

Another interlocutor of Vremya Novostei in the market notes that by the standards of countries with developed mortgages, a well-balanced portfolio implies that 30-40% of issued loans are securitized. “Currently, loan rates on the market have increased greatly; accordingly, KIT Finance mortgages are no longer as profitable as they were a year ago. Accordingly, the bank needs money in order to place it in new mortgages or other consumer loans, but at higher rates,” explains the newspaper’s interlocutor. Analysts agree that if in the case of Transcreditbank we are really talking about a deal with KIT Finance, then the latter will obviously be able to continue to find opportunities for refinancing.

Natalya ROMANOVA, Ivan GORDEEV