State-owned Vneshtorgbank (VTB) has not submitted an IPO proposal to the Russian government as, the bank’s chairman said Friday.
“The government has not decided yet [on the IPO possibility], and we have not submitted it [the proposal],”Andrei Kostin told a news conference in Moscow.
He added that the bank had been considering the IPO possibility and hoped it will happen in 2006.
Earlier, Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref said the government had been mulling the privatization of 20% of VTB shares.
Kostin also said the bank was planning to finalize the purchase of a 75% stake in the St. Petersburg-based Promstroibank by December 25. He added that the value of the deal had been determined, but declined to reveal it.
An agreement on a two-step purchase deal between the two banks was signed in September 2004 and Vneshtorgbank has already bought 25% of Promstroibank stake.
VTB is one of the largest banks in Russia, with a base capital of about 42.1 billion rubles or $1.4 billion. It has an extensive chain of subsidiary branches, with five branches abroad – in Switzerland, Cyprus, Austria, Luxembourg and Armenia. VTB is also an affiliated bank in Germany and has representative offices in Italy, China, Ukraine and Belarus.