The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is
considering taking equity stakes in more banks in Belarus as part of its
efforts to help the state open up its economy, EBRD President Suma
Chakrabarti said.
This week the EBRD agreed to
loan 50 million euros ($59.4 million) to Belarusian state lender
Belinvestbank to boost its capital in preparation for privatisation.
Chakrabarti said that the EBRD has yet
to decide whether it will convert a subordinated loan it agreed to
provide to Belinvest into equity or buy the stake separately.
"The Moscow Minsk Bank is
another one which we are interested to take forward Moscow Minsk is
already more commercially run anyway, this may be a quicker process,"
Chakrabarti told Reuters.
"And then we are looking at (the state's stake in) Priorbank and also some state-owned Belarussian banks."
The government of Belarus owns a
minority stake in Priorbank, while 87.7 percent belongs to Raiffeisen
Bank. Moscow Minsk Bank is almost 100 percent owned by the central bank.
Belinvest's loan portfolio stood
at $1 billion at the end of the first quarter, of which non-performing
loans accounted for $140 million. Out of these $140 million, some $100
million were for state companies.
Under the agreement with the EBRD, the bank has to restructure around $60 million in non-performing loans.
The final size of the stake the
EBRD would take in Belinvest is yet to be decided, Chakrabarti said, but
it will be below one third. He confirmed a previous plan to find a
strategic investor for Belinvest in 2020.
In the Moscow Minsk Bank EBRD would also consider taking a stake of less than a third, he said.
AZERBAIJAN PLAN Chakrabarti, who
visited Azerbaijan last week, said that the EBRD was "ready to help"
with the changes the Azeri banking sector is going through.
"I was there last week, we spoke
to the (Azeri) president (Ilham Aliyev), we said we would be happy to
help in restructuring and refocusing of this bank," Chakrabarti said.
He added that the key for the
EBRD to seriously consider becoming a shareholder in IBA would be a
"corporate governance reform" at the bank. The EBRD was unlikely to
become a shareholder with IBA as early as this year.
"It's very unlikely this year
they need to go through the restructuring process. We said: lets see how
you go and we are happy to be involved at a technical assistance level
but for the equity stake we really have to see how things have been
changing."
Chakrabarti added that the EBRD
was aiming to restart lending to Uzbekistan this year, distributing one
or two credit facilities for the banking sector, which, in turn, would
use the funds for loans to the small and medium size businesses.
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