04 December 2019, 18:12 / Finance

Sovcombank continues to buy banks

This time he absorbs the Volga-Caspian Joint Stock Bank Anna Mikheeva Maxim Stulov / Vedomosti

According to an extract from the register of securities owners (Vedomosti has it, the authenticity of the extract was confirmed by Sovcombank) Sovcombank became a shareholder of VKA-Bank on December 2, purchasing about 20% of the shares, but less than a blocking stake. In the near future, the bank plans to increase the stake to a controlling stake, a person familiar with the documents prepared for the deal told Vedomosti, and was confirmed by a person close to Sovcombank.

“We plan to strengthen our position in the Astrakhan region with the help of a long-term partnership with VKA-Bank,” said a representative of Sovcombank. Nobody says who sold the shares or how much the deal cost.

VKA Bank did not respond to Vedomosti’s request.

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VKA-Bank is a small universal bank; as of October 1, it ranks 312th among Russian banks in terms of assets (RUB 2.2 billion), according to Interfax CEA. As of November 19, according to the Central Bank, the bank was controlled by several families - the Sukhorukovs (totally owned 29.9983% of the shares), Bondarenko (totally owned 22.2284%), and the Lomovs (totally owned 20.2885%). Other shareholders included individuals: Tatyana Solodko (6.1380%), Sergey Panenko (5.4170%), Natalya Kartavykh (2.2957%), Irina Bukaeva (1.9339%), Vera Polyakova (1.0992%) , and another 1.0084% in total belonged to Olga and Mikhail Stolyarov, the remaining 9.5926% belonged to minority shareholders.

The deal fits into the logic of Sovcombank's development, says Moody's analyst Lev Dorf, although the price is insignificant; VKA-Bank's own capital is 1.2 billion rubles. according to IFRS. For comparison: the net profit of Sovcombank itself according to IFRS for the first half of the year amounted to 13 billion rubles, he points out. For Sovcombank, VKA-Bank is a clear asset that will help strengthen the bank’s position in the region; it is one of the oldest banks in the Astrakhan region, which works with the administration of Astrakhan, serves local enterprises and organizations, as well as retail clients. “Its assets are more than 80% in securities, most of which are government bonds, and the bank's capital adequacy ratio exceeds 80%,” Dorf says.

Sovcombank may find this purchase economically interesting if it has a good discount to capital, he believes. The multiplier could be around 0.5–0.7, says Ruslan Korshunov, senior director for bank ratings at Expert RA.

The demand for banking assets is now low, most purchases are made at a discount to capital, says Fitch analyst Anton Lopatin. There are several players in the market who are showing an appetite for this kind of banks, he continues. According to him, Sovcombank is one of them. “If we conservatively assume that the bank is being bought for the book value of capital (although, most likely, there is a discount), then the cost of 20% would be about RUB 200 million,” he adds.

In March of this year, Sovcombank participated in the auction for the sale of the Asia-Pacific Bank, which was transferred to the Central Bank during the reorganization. But due to the high cost, Sovcombank refused the purchase, although it had already received permission from the Central Bank and the FAS. “Unfortunately, even taking into account significant synergies with Sovcombank and the intention to strengthen our presence in the Far East, the lower price of the auction was too high for us,” said Dmitry Gusev, chairman of the board of Sovcombank (quoted by TASS).

A year ago, the bank completed its merger with RosEvroBank (in 2017 it ranked 45th, according to Interfax-CEA, with assets of 173.5 billion rubles), in which it gradually increased its share starting in 2015. At the same time , in the fall of 2018, Sovcombank completed the merger of the Modern Commercial Innovative Bank (SKIB), of which it also became a shareholder in 2015. Even earlier, in 2017, Sovcombank absorbed Metkombank, purchased in 2016 from Severgroup, controlled by Alexey Mordashev .

Today, Sovcombank ranks 11th in terms of assets - based on the results of nine months, they amounted to 1 trillion rubles, capital - 133 billion rubles.