Pravex-Bank owners have been holding active talks to sell it. Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper wrote about this, referring to a banker, close to Pravex-Bank shareholders.
“At first, there were three clients. The main issue is the price. The sale began from an unreal coefficient 9 (around $1 billion for the bank) and now went down to 6 capitals ($750 million). The talks are at the most important stage at present”, he said.
Pravex-Bank Supervisory Council chief Stepan Chernovetskiy could just confirm that they received proposals from foreign banks to buy it.
“Pravex-Bank shareholders understand the necessity of attracting investments to develop the bank. But, as of today, the shareholders have not made any decisions concerning the sale of any share holdings”, he noted.
According to a vice-president of one of the biggest banks, the most probable buyer of Pravex-Bank is American GE Money.
“They are interested in Pravex-Bank, first of all, from the point of its large clients base, existing salary projects, and a developed network of standard regional branches”, the source specified to the newspaper.
According to some information, auditing company Deloitte has been busy with looking for the partner of GE Money in Ukraine. During the last three years, this company carried out the audit of Pravex-Bank.
GE Money refused to comment on the course of talks. The bank’s deputy president for communications in Europe, Middle East and Africa claimed that the bank is interested in Ukraine as in its possible market.
Deloitte chief manager Oleksander Kohut noted that, even if his partners are negotiating the purchase of Pravex-Bank, he known nothing about that as the information is confidential. A source from Deloitte disclosed to the newspaper that he “heard from the partners that Pravex-Bank shareholders were looking for a strategic investor”.
The edition notes that two weeks ago Pravex-Bank chairman of board Natalia Zubrytska, commenting on the bank’s evaluation by Deloitte, said that they took measures aimed to improve the bank’s assets and liabilities, which render the bank attractive for investments, including foreign ones.
Experts highly estimate the chances of Privat-Bank to attract investors, at the same time, adding that with time the bank may become cheaper.
The slowing down of the bank’s growth rate at the beginning of the next year may reduce its price by 30%, according to a banker. “That is why it is very important to sell the bank till the end of the year”, he said.
Ukrayinska Pravda
