The Cabinet is expected to discuss at a meeting Thursday the enlargement of VTB's charter capital by issuing additional shares.
"VTB will remain a universal commercial bank, competing with all other commercial banks, and the bank needs its charter capital to be enlarged and its stock to be placed on an exchange to compete successfully," the source said.
The government currently holds 99.9% of the bank's charter capital. After the stake is reduced in 2007, the government will further cut its ownership of VTB to 50% plus one share by 2010, the source said.
In 2007-2010, VTB's capital is expected to be increased to 450 billion rubles (about $17 billion), using the bank's net profit of 190 billion rubles (about $7.2 billion) obtained from two initial public offerings, the source said.
The bank is expected to issue additional shares worth about 93 billion rubles (about $3.5 billion), or 22-23% of charter capital in 2007, and around 200 billion rubles (about $7.6 billion) in 2010, the source said.
