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Weekly Lists
April 5, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 28
bne:Banker Belarus government
consolidates stake in in Raiffeisen's subsidiary before deal with EBRD
Russia's VEB.RF development bank slashed loss 1.5-fold in 2018
The Belarusian government will take over Priorbank shares from local government bodies and government-controlled entities in Pri- orbank, a Belarusian subsidiary of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI).
The shares are to be handed over by the cabinet to the State Property Committee before April 20. The move is widely considered as Minsk’s preparations for selling its stake in the lender to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
At the same time, the State Property Committee holds 4.62% in Privatbank and a 1.28% stake belongs to state-owned Minsk Automobile Plant. Other legal entities own 1.55% in the bank, while private individuals - 4.81%.
The loss of Russian development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB. RF) was cut 1.6-fold year-on-year in 2018 to RUB175.8bn ($2.68bn) versus RUB288mn loss in 2017, the bank said on March 29.
VEB was on the brink of collapse in 2015-2016, overburdened by loans issued for Sochi Olympics construction and hit by sanctions. In 2018 the bank was entrusted to Igor Shuvalov, a ex-Deputy Prime Minister and trusted Kremlin bureaucrat, which revamped the bank into the main hub of state investment spending in the economy. VEB will play a key role in the RUB25.7 trillion ($390bn) investments planned for the 12 national projects and has been tasked to oversee the infrastructure spending to cut waste and corruption.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) estimated round-tripping foreign direct investment (FDI) at $500mn, or 20.6% of FDI to Ukraine in 2018 (an increase from $300mn, or 10.4% of FDI in 2017), the central bank reported on April 3.
“Round tripping” is a term to identify the investment flow, which is reported as FDI, but in fact involves just the return of domestic capital previously withdrawn from the country. To reach this estimate, the regulator distinguished the flows in which the ultimate controlling investor was a resident of Ukraine.
Ukraine central bank sees 20% round tripping FDI growth in 2018