Photo from UNIAN
PrivatBank posted UAH 22.966 billion in losses in 2017.
Former shareholder in Dnipro-based PrivatBank Ihor Kolomoisky says that the bank's nationalization in December 2016 was unlawful.
"There was unlawful nationalization, from my point of view. Related litigation is under way in Ukraine, and its success is varying, but, as for me, it's more in our favor," Kolomoisky told Deutsche Welle's Zhanna Nemtsova in an interview.
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"And if the court decides that the nationalization was wrong, they will have to return the bank to us, and then the entire London trial will end on its own, because we cannot sue ourselves. As long as the government controls the bank, it has initiated the process in London with one goal – to complicate our life this or other way, to limit our assets. To freeze these assets and introduce limitations on our personal expenses. As long as there is such a court order, we follow these rules of the game," he said.
UNIAN memo. Dnipro-based PrivatBank has been operating in the Ukrainian market since 1992 and is the largest bank in terms of assets. On December 18, 2016, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers decided to nationalize the bank, guided by the recommendations of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, as was proposed by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
PrivatBank's report available on the NBU's website states that the bank posted UAH 22.966 billion in losses in 2017.
The updated strategy of state-owned banks' reform, which was approved by the Cabinet in February this year, provides that PrivatBank should be wholly privatized before 2022.