The National Bank of Ukraine did not accept either of the bids of potential purchasers of Ukrainian VTB subsidiaries; the group continues negotiations, Russia’s Interfax reports, quoting Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank Herbert Moos.
“We have just considerably lowered our expenses, we closed many branches in order the bank does not have a significant negative influence. In last years, we reserved the portfolio; that is why the current situation is such that the bank does not give any significant additional expenses for us either in terms of reserves, or in terms of operational costs”, he noted.
Currently, VTB (Ukraine) deals with the optimization of expenses and conducts the work with loans, remaining on the balance.
“In the meantime, we are searching for purchasers. Any purchaser of the bank should be approved by the National Bank of Ukraine. According to our information, neither of the announced purchasers was approved by the National Bank for us and for other Russian banks. Here comes the question – it is about the quality of the purchaser or it is just about not approving any purchaser?” Moos said.
According to him, VTB has two categories of potential investors – local and foreign.
“We still conduct negotiations, it is early to say that we completed them”, he noted.
It should be reminded that VTB ranked top in the rating of lossmaking banks of 2016 with the loss of UAH 351.7 mln.
VTB estimates its losses at RUB 27 bln due to the closure of Ukrainian subsidiary.
