Russia’s second-largest bank state-controlled VTB plans to divest non-core assets unrelated to banking operations within the next five years, according to Interfax citing the bank's CEO, Andrei Kostin.
As followed by bne IntelliNews, VTB has for years been called upon for bailing out troubled industrial majors, such as the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC or OSK). However, in the first signs of a possible shift of policy, this year the bank called off a deal to acquire major shipyard Zvezda.
"The Central Bank [of Russia], by the way, discourages us from venturing into other industries. I believe this is the right approach. I have made a decision for the next five years, as requirements for non-core and non-financial assets are being tightened. Our goal is to exit all these assets that are not directly related to banking and focus exclusively on banking activities," Kostin said at the Data Fusion forum, as cited by Interfax.
In a separate report, Interfax also reported that VTB has reduced its stake in National Logistics Technologies (NLT), a joint venture with Russian Post, and plans to exit the venture by the end of 2025.
NLT reported that as of January 17 Russian Post became the owner of 74.99% of the company. VTB sold its 12.5% stake to Russian Post in December 2024, and plans to sell the remaining 25% by the end of 2025, the bank told Interfax.
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