Page 26 - bne_newspaper_November_24_2017

Weekly Lists
November 24, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 26
bne:Banker
Banca Transilvania and EBRD close in on Victoriabank takeover
Moldova’s central bank has approved the request of Romania’s Banca Transilvania to take over 100% of Moldova’s third-largest bank Victoriabank. A similar permission has already been issued for VB Investment Holding BV, a vehicle of the European bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which owns 27.6% of Victoriabank already.
This will be the first time a foreign bank investor has entered the Moldovan market since 2007.
Banca Transilvania is in negotiations to take over a 39.2% stake in Victoriabank from Cyprus-based Insidown — a firm officially con- trolled by Russian investor Sergey Lobanov but allegedly under the control of Moldova’s ruling coalition leader Vlad Plahotniuc. Insidown was previously fined by Moldova’s central bank under the tightened ownership disclosure requirements, and decided to sell its stake.
Banca Transilvania and the EBRD are seen as coordinated group of shareholders in Victoriabank, since they expressed such plans and furthermore EBRD is a shareholder of Banca Transilvania.
Applying the 50% of profit dividend rule to state-owned banks would be “incorrect,” as lenders have to comply with capital requirements that are fed by profits, the governor of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), Elvira Nabiullina, told the press on November 22.
Nabiullina's comments came amid reports that the government plans to increase the dividend payout of Russia's largest bank Sberbank to 40% of net profit in 2018 and further to 45-50% in 2019-2020.
The CBR holds a controlling stake in Sberbank, which showed outstanding performance throughout 2017 and cemented its status as Russia's most valuable enterprise in terms of market capitalisation.
In 2016 the state-controlled bank paid record-high dividends of 25% of net profit or about RUB135bn, but the government that struggles to get state energy majors to comply with the 50% of IFRS net profit dividend rule reportedly wants more.
Russia’s central bank defends Sberbank on dividends