Alfa-Bank confirmed the preparation of the sale of shares of Fridman and Aven

Alfa-Bank is preparing a deal to sell controlling shares of co-founders Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven. This deal will not require regulatory approval. Kommersant was informed about this in the press service of the credit institution.

“As far as we know, such a deal is indeed being worked out. It is too early to talk about its completion – the parties need to go through a number of corporate and legal procedures,” the bank’s press service said.

As a result of the transaction, Andrey Kosogov will become the main owner of Alfa-Bank. The press service added that the approval of the transaction by foreign regulators may not be needed, since Mr. Kosogov and the seller are not under sanctions.

Andrey Kosogov is one of the founders of Alfa-Bank. Since March 2022, he has been the bank’s largest shareholder. Through ABH Holdings, he owns a 40.96% stake in Alfa Bank. In 2022 Forbes appreciated his net worth is $1.2 billion.

Alfa-Bank is among the 50 largest companies in Russia by net profit in 2022. He ranks 26th in the Forbes ranking with a net profit of 117.9 billion rubles. for 2021. At the end of the same year, the number of private clients of the bank increased to 22 million, the number of corporate clients exceeded 1 million. The organization has not yet presented financial results for 2022. The bank has been under EU sanctions since February 2023.

On the eve of the change of shareholders of the bank wrote The Financial Times, citing sources. According to the publication, Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven are ready to sell their shares of 32.9% and 12.4% in the bank for $2.3 billion (178 billion rubles) to Andrei Kosogov in order to achieve the lifting of Western sanctions. Mr. Kosogov gave his consent to the deal. According to the FT, the deal should close in the spring. The publication noted that in order to complete it, the parties need to obtain permission from regulatory authorities, including the Bank of Russia, as well as sanctions regulators from the United States and the European Union (EU).

The EU imposed sanctions against Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven on February 28, 2022, the UK on March 15. In March of the same year, they left the board of directors of Alfa-Bank.

As noted in the official journal of the EU, Mr. Aven benefited from his connections with the Russian government, Mr. Friedman – forged “strong ties” with the Russian presidential administration. The businessmen challenged the sanctions against them at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

Read more about the deal in the material “Kommersant FM” “Share of Hope”.

Olesya Pavlenko