Russian banking group TCS, operating the country’s only pure online bank Tinkoff, announced its intention to delist its depositary receipts from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) from February 1 2024. Exchange trading in the securities has been suspended since March 2022, following Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. 

At the same time TCS Group Holding ( Tinkoff Bank, Tinkoff Insurance, Tinkoff Investments and other group companies) on January 8 said that the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders has been postponed from 8 to 15 January. 

“The agenda of the latter previously included the issue of approving the process of cancellation of registration in Cyprus and re-registration in Russia. A decision on redomiciliation could give the issuer the technical ability to pay dividends in the Russian perimeter, although the current dividend policy does not guarantee them (the group has historically prioritised growth investments),” Renaissance Capital commented.

As followed by bne IntelliNews, TCS Group is controlled by Interros of sanctioned Vladimir Potanin, who bought the bank from the exiled founder Oleg Tinkov, as yet unsanctioned Potanin was picking up exiting Western assets and rebuilding his banking empire.

In 2022 Tinkoff remained profitable, remaining one of the largest unsanctioned private banks. Tinkoff alone maintained a RUB21bn profit under IFRS, albeit down 3-fold year on year. In 1Q23 alone, TCS Group posted RUB16.2bn profit. Tinkoff, an online bank, serves over 28mn retail customers.

In July 2023 the US sanctioned the Tinkoff Bank, but not its parent structure TCS Group. The analysts surveyed by RBC business portal believed that Tikoff is well-prepared for disruptions of operations with foreign correspondent banks. In 2022, Tinkoff had already significantly cleared its balance sheet of assets in US dollars and euros. 

On the same day as Tinkoff Bank was put on the US SDN List, the founder and former owner of Tinkoff Oleg Tinkov was cleared of sanctions by the UK.