Two Ukrainian banks plan merger

Kyiv-based Sky Bank's shareholders, with Kazakh investor Arif Babayev as its main shareholder, will consider the merger of their bank with PJSC Bank Sich owned by Ukrainians, Oleh Balanda and Valeriy Razdorozhnyy.

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"[The shareholders will decide] to instruct the Sky Bank Supervisory Board to hold talks and take appropriate measures on Bank Sich to determine ways of the bank's reorganization under a simplified procedure stipulated in the law of Ukraine on simplifying capitalization and reorganization procedures for banks," reads the draft agenda posted in the National Securities and Stock Market Commission's information disclosure system.

The bank's board was also instructed to prepare needed documents.

UNIAN memo. Sky Bank (formerly known as Region-Bank) was founded in 1991. At the beginning of 2018, it ranked 76th in terms of assets among 84 banks operating in Ukraine. In November 2016, the National Bank agreed on the acquisition by Kazakh native Arif Babayev of a key stake in the bank. Following that, the bank changed its name and focused on the development of IT solutions in the banking sector.

Bank Sich was established in 2011. It ranked 59th in terms of assets among operating banks at the beginning of this year.