Raiffeisen group to buy Russian Impexbank for $550m

MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - The Austrian banking group Raiffeisen International announced a major move into the Russian financial services market Wednesday with a multimillion dollar deal to buy a leading bank outright.

Raiffeisen said it was seeking to buy a 100% stake in Impexbank provided the deal is approved by the Central Bank of Russia, as well as Russian and Austrian regulatory authorities.

According to the Austrian bank's press service, the agreement between the two sides was signed last night in Vienna.

Raiffeisen will make the payment in two tranches. The first, up to $500 mln, will be released after the audited financial results for 2005 are presented, and the second, up to $50 mln, will be contingent on 2006 financials. The $550-mln price tag on the deal is the maximum, but it could be revised following a revaluation of real estate, a news release said.

It also said the acquisition was made as part of the group's retail strategy.

Impexbank was founded in 1993 and is owned by seven Russian companies. The bank mainly targets individual, non-corporate clients. As of June 30, 2005, Impexbank's assets stood at 1.2 bln euros with a net profit of 9 mln euros.

Raiffeisen International is a major banking group controlling 16 subsidiary banks and leasing companies in central and eastern Europe. The group is a fully consolidated subsidiary structure of Raiffeisen Centralbank Osterreich, which holds 70% of its common shares with the other 30% of shares in free circulation.