CFO Dmitry Pyanov said Russia’s No. 2 lender VTB (VTBR.MM) plans to raise 94 billion roubles ($1.15 billion) in its secondary public offering (SPO), which would see an unknown investor buy a portion of the state’s stake in the bank.
VTB bought rival Otkritie from Russia’s central bank for 340 billion roubles late last year and is selling 9.3 trillion extra shares to cut the state’s stake in VTB to 61.8% from 76.4%.
Pyanov told reporters on Wednesday that only non-state investors participated in the secondary sale, which the central bank will register after June 8.
Pyanov declined to reveal the anchor investor, but small private investors raised most of the funds.
Since Western sanctions hit Russia’s financial industry, VTB has struggled with capital.
“We are a sanctioned issuer and believe that the risks of sanctioning our counterparties have not been exhausted, and we do not want to expose this new investor to this risk,” Pyanov added.
Closing FX positions
VTB aims to profit this year after a 2022 sanctions-induced net loss. Pyanov said VTB’s prediction of 327-400 billion rouble for the bank’s profits this year should be higher.
VTB, like Russia’s financial sector, is moving away from “unfriendly” currencies, such as those from nations that sanctioned Moscow, to “friendly” currencies, such as China’s yuan.
Pyanov said VTB had open foreign currency positions of just over 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion), down from 9 billion at the start of 2023.
He explained that VTB converted loans into roubles or yuan, hedged foreign currencies against the yuan, or used derivatives on the few markets still available.
Pyanov said the bank is working on accessing blocked overseas assets and will move “hundreds of billions of roubles’ worth” to a new structure outside the group in 2024.
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