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Weekly Lists
June 28, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
bne:Banker
Iran’s Bank Mellat strikes ‘secret deal’ with UK Treasury to receive out-of-court financial settlement
Russia's VEB bank files lawsuit in Stockholm against Ukraine over loss of subsidiary
The CEO of Iran’s Bank Mellat has said the bank has struck a secret deal with the UK Treasury on how to receive an out-of-court financial settlement made after a dispute over alleged links of the lender to the Iranian nuclear development programme, ILNA reported on June 25.
Mohammad Bigdeli reportedly said the bank, Iran’s largest private lender, would not reveal how it will receive the undisclosed amount of funds from the UK.
Financial payments to Iran are hindered by the US sanctions regime that constrains the Islamic Republic. The settlement means that Bank Mellat can say it brought the first case of its type successfully resolved to the benefit of an Islamic Republic-backed commercial entity in the UK.
Russian state-owned banking giant VTB has filed a lawsuit against Ukraine at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber
of Commerce over losses allegedly inflicted on its Ukrainian subsidiary Prominvestbank.
VEB believes that Ukraine has allegedly violated a 1998 inter- governmental agreement with Russia over the promotion and providing mutual protection for investment.
After a number of unsuccessful attempts to sell Prominvestbank, mainly due to refusal of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to au- thorise a deal, VEB decided in 2018 to close the bank down. Accord- ing to last years estimates made by Russian experts, VEB's losses from the closure of Prominvestbank may amount to about $190mn.
Serbia’s government has acquired a 6.8% stake in the country’s second-largest bank, Komercijalna Banka, by two minority shareholders – the funds DEG and SVED, paying them €43.7mn, eKapija reported on June 26.
The move is part of Serbia’s plan related to the tender for privatisation of Komercijalna Banka. The government also plans to acquire the stakes of the EBRD, which holds 24.4%, and the IFC, which owns 10.1%.
Serbia called a tender for the privatisation of Komercijalna Banka on May 31. The government is the biggest shareholder in the bank and hopes to sell a stake of between 50.1% and 83.23%, hoping to gain at least €145mn.
Serbia’s government buys 6.8% stake
in Komercijalna Banka from minority shareholders