Putin divestment decree complicates OTP's Russian exit effort

BUDAPEST – Hungarian OTP Financial institution’s Russian unit has attracted “severe curiosity” from potential bidders, however a Russian presidential decree banning the sale of Western banks may complicate any deal, deputy chief government Laszlo Bencsik mentioned on Thursday.

CEO Sandor Csanyi mentioned in April that OTP would exit the Russian market if a purchaser got here ahead with a proposal that makes enterprise sense, including that its market presence there may grow to be an ethical difficulty.

He later mentioned that OTP was beneath stress from the federal government of Ukraine, the place the financial institution can be current, to promote its Russian unit.

A presidential decree, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and printed final Friday bans traders from what Moscow phrases unfriendly nations, which embody members of the European Union, from promoting shares in sure vitality tasks and banks till the top of the yr.

The decree offers for waivers in some instances.

“The presidential decree banning the sale of overseas banks that has been printed in Russia creates a particular state of affairs, however we preserve learning our choices and that features the doable sale of the (Russian) financial institution,” Bencsik mentioned on Thursday.

He mentioned OTP‘s Russian operation was worthwhile, which meant the financial institution was “in a state of affairs the place we are able to adapt to circumstances”.

OTP mentioned in its Q2 earnings assertion earlier on Thursday that its Ukrainian and Russian belongings collectively represented 8% of its consolidated belongings.

The financial institution mentioned that second quarter earnings turned optimistic in its Russian and Ukrainian enterprise following considerably decrease threat prices and that it anticipated its Russian subsidiary to ship optimistic earnings for the remainder of 2022.

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