MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Five Russian state-owned banks that operate in Ukraine, including VTB and Sberbank, have been recently hit with one-year sanctions from Kiev.
"The timeline for such deals is about 3-4 months…We have two groups of buyers, we have reached agreements with them, and will submit documents to the National Bank of Ukraine, waiting for permission [for sale]. We know that the process could be finalized, if everything goes well, in May-June," VTB First Deputy President Yuri Soloviev told reporters.
"Under a positive scenario we may even profit from the sale, while under a negative scenario we could lose up to 20 billion rubles [$352 million] if the pressure from [Kiev] authorities continues," Soloviev added.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko approved on March 16 operational curbs on partly state controlled Russian banks, barring them from taking funds out of the country. This prompted all lenders affected to consider selling their subsidiaries in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian central banker Kateryna Rozhkova.
Sberbank was the first to announce the sale of its Ukrainian subsidiary to a Latvian bank and a Belarusian firm, in a statement on Monday. The deal is expected to be closed between late April and late May. In 2016, the subsidiary was reportedly worth $144 million.