The Austrian Central Bank sees a tail risk in the RBI’s purchase of a stake in Strabag – Kommersant

The head of the National Bank of Austria (OeNB), Robert Holzmann, told the agency Reuters, which sees tail risk in the transaction to buy out Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) of the share of the Austrian company Strabag through the Russian Raiffeisenbank. According to him, the RBI itself must assess the risk and make a decision.

Mr. Holtzman said that this transaction does not violate established anti-Russian sanctions. However, he said, the US, Europe and Austria cannot give the company carte blanche.

“We can’t say, ‘Go ahead, you’re fine.’ There is still tail risk,” said Robert Holtzman, declining to specify what he meant by tail risk. He stressed that since there is a risk, the RBI needs to take its own decision on the transaction.

Tail risk is a type of risk that characterizes the deviation of assets in an investment portfolio by more than three points.

The RBI announced the upcoming deal in December 2023. It is planned that RBI, through its Russian subsidiary Raiffeisenbank, will buy a 27.78% stake in Strabag SE. This share belongs to the Cyprus company Rasperia, 25% of which was owned by Oleg Deripaska since 2007. On March 27, Mr. Deripaska announced that he had given up indirect control of Rasperia, his share was sold to JSC Iliadis.

After the transaction, Russian Raiffeisenbank will transfer 27.78% of the shares as dividends in kind under the management of RBI’s subsidiary Gabarts. It is led by Stefan Zohling, a former top manager of several of Mr. Deripaska’s companies. The RBI insists that the deal does not violate the sanctions regime and will also help the company reduce its presence in Russia.

Alexandra Goroshilova