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Sberbank On a Buying Spree
The Savings Bank of Russia (Sberbank), the largest financial organization bank in Eastern Europe, has held preliminary negotiations on the acquisition of Raiffeisen Bank of Austria and the Hungarian OTP bank, according to an Interfax source. The source said Sberbank wants to buy one of those banks to expand its business beyond Russia. No final decision has been made yet, the source added, saying that Sberbank would be prepared to create a strategic alliance or trade assets with those banks as well.
Neither the value of the possible transactions nor other conditions on them are known at present. But it is clear that Sberbank would significantly expand it business in Eastern Europe if it acquired either of those banks.
The Russian press reported at the end of last month that Sberbank had refused to trade shares with a large European bank. The name of the bank was not reported, but the press suggested that it was the British Barclays. Raiffeisen and OTP are well-known on the Russian market, where their subsidiaries occupy a significant share. Russian Raiffeisenbank is one of the ten largest banks in the country and OTP is among the 50 largest.
OTP Bank is the largest bank in Hungary and has subsidiaries in Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Montenegro. Raiffeisen is a leading bank in Austria and operates in a number of Central and Eastern European countries as well.
www.kommersant.com
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