The Austrian group does not intend to sell its business in Russia

Raiffeisen Bank International AG did not confirm the sale of the Russian subsidiary. The press service of the parent structure told the Kommersant newspaper about this. Earlier, the publication reported that the Austrian group plans to get rid of business in Russia. The unit was allegedly planned to be sold instead of a similar Polish structure.

Photo: Safron Golikov, Kommersant / buy photo

According to Bloomberg, Raiffeisen Bank International AG planned to reduce banking structures in Eastern Europe. This is one of the options for reducing investments in risky assets. The liquidation of the Polish direction was previously discussed, but in the end the deal was postponed. As an alternative, the group's board also discussed the sale of the Russian Raiffeisenbank. Both subsidiaries account for about 10% of the conglomerate's assets. The Russian division is valued at €12 billion, the Polish one at €15 billion. Moreover, the Russian subsidiary brings in up to 50% of the profit of the entire group. According to international reports, in the nine months of this year the net profit of the department exceeded €250 million, while the Polish office brought in only €40 million.

In the Russian banking system, Raiffeisenbank ranks 14th in terms of assets, reaching 850 billion rubles. In terms of capital volume, the credit institution is in 11th place, in terms of the volume of funds from individuals - in seventh place.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, Raiffeisenbank can sell its subsidiary in Russia for no less than one capital. The Austrian group will get rid of the profitable structure only if it finds a profitable replacement, Stanislav Volkov, director of banking ratings at Expert RA, is sure. Moreover, there are practically no buyers for such an asset on the Russian market, the expert added.

“The sale of an asset as significant for the financial results of the entire Raiffeisenbank group as a Russian subsidiary would be justified if they already had a specific asset to purchase instead of a Russian subsidiary, that is, let’s say, they leave one market and receive another asset that will also bring significant financial results. The purchase of a Russian subsidiary is not guaranteed to be successful: the scale of funds that need to be available is really very large. Maybe Sberbank or Alfa Bank have them. As for smaller players, it is possible to attract quasi-borrowed funds for this transaction,” Volkov suggests.

Large retail banks from the top 20 may be interested in purchasing Russian Raiffeisenbank. Mikhail Krylov, director of the analytical department of the investment company Golden Hills Capital AM, is confident of this.

“This large asset could be bought by one of Raiffeisen’s competitors, for example, B&N Bank; Raiffeisenbank could also be bought by Alfa Bank. Well, then, VTB may have an objective interest in a high-quality loan portfolio, again. Changing the brand for the consumer will mean an increase in commissions and worsening access to simple services, such as currency exchange, or to your favorite online bank. But there is no reason to believe that the quality will deteriorate,” Krylov emphasized on Kommersant FM.

Earlier, representatives of Raiffeisen Bank International AG stated that they were ready to reduce risky assets by 20%, including Russian ones. However, then they emphasized that they were not ready to close their business in Russia.

Yulia Bezrukova

“To buy Raiffeisenbank you need to have very large funds”