MINSK, 24 January (BelTA) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to conclude the negotiations to acquire a stake in Belinvestbank by the end of the year, Head of the EBRD Office in Belarus Alexander Pivovarsky told the media, BelTA has learned.
“We have started a dialogue with the Belarusian government on the participation in the equity of Belinvestbank. Probably, it will take some time to negotiate because it is a fairly complex project,” the head of the EBRD Minsk Office said.
Alexander Pivovarsky said that the EBRD and the Belarusian government planned to sign another memorandum of understanding regarding the privatization of Belinvestbank (the previous memorandum signed in May 2015 expired on 31 December 2017). We intended to extend the memorandum. But we have been moving very quickly and approached the negotiations on the participation in the Bank's capital. Thus we do not see any sense in concluding a separate memorandum since we have already started discussing such an ambitious goal as the participation in the capital,” he stressed and clarified that the document will be signed in the autumn of 2018.
The head of the EBRD office in Belarus also reported that the cost of Belinvestbank's shares has not yet been discussed with the Government of Belarus.
Alexander Pivovarsky noted that the EBRD is considering several options of participation. “We have had several ideas on how to do this, but for now we think it will be the participation in the real capital on certain conditions,” he said.
The head of the EBRD Office in Belarus noted that the process of discussing the matter such as the acquisition of a stake in the Belarusian bank by the international financial institution would be of great importance for Belarus as part of the process to transform the public sector.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the biggest institutional investor in the Belarusian economy. The bank's aggregate volume of operations in the country has almost reached €2 billion.
The public joint-stock company (OAO) Belinvestbank is one of the largest finance and credit institutions in Belarus. For many years Belinvestbank has been in the country's top six banks in terms of the volume of assets, credit operations, settlement operations, and customer deposits. Belinvestbank boasts one of the largest regional chains (about 130 outlets) and is one of the largest bank card issuers in the country. A program to improve the bank's effectiveness was launched in 2015 with assistance of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
