“Uralsib” chooses wheels

As it became known to Kommersant, Uralsib Bank decided to bet on the development of car loans. He is negotiating the purchase of the Udmurt Bystrobank specializing in this segment. Other specialized transactions are also possible, according to Kommersant sources familiar with the situation. Experts believe that, despite the significant contraction of car loans in the face of a sharp decline in the Russian car market, such a strategy may be justified.

The fact that Uralsib is negotiating the acquisition of the Udmurt Bystrobank was told to Kommersant by several sources close to the parties to the transaction. “The initiative came from Uralsib, but Bystrobank, given the current situation in car lending, quickly agreed to discuss the deal,” says one of Kommersant’s interlocutors. The other day Bystrobank published information on the updated composition of the Board of Directors. Vladislav Kolpakov (the largest owner with 14.98% of shares) left the board, he was replaced by Andrey Opekunov, who stood at the origins of the creation of Uralsib. However, according to another interlocutor of Kommersant, the deal is “not going fast” – the main issue remains the cost of the bank. According to Kommersant’s sources, we are talking about an amount of less than half of the reported capital. The banks did not respond to Kommersant’s requests.

Although the car lending segment is going through hard times due to the departure of Western manufacturers and the general economic situation, experts believe that investments in car banks can be justified.

“Banks specializing in car loans are likely to stagnate their business in the medium term, and therefore the shareholders of Bystrobank may consider selling the business,” says Lyudmila Kozhekina, director of banking ratings at the Expert RA agency. “Uralsib’s motivation is connected with the goal diversification of the lending business through the acquisition of banks with established competencies (agent network, scoring and customer base) in the field of car loans”.

“Bystrobank actually makes a monoproduct — it specializes in car loans and the sale of profile portfolios at a premium to larger market participants,” says Dmitry Kurbatsky, partner of FG Dmitry Donskoy. Issues continued in a smaller volume than a year ago, but due to the abandonment of traditional portfolio sales to the market, we managed to maintain the size of the portfolio, even though the profitability of the business in any case became lower than a year ago.” According to the expert, Uralsib, in addition to increasing its portfolio and growing competencies in the field of car loans, with this transaction “declares itself as a participant in market consolidation, competing with the teams of Expobank and Sovcombank, which have traditionally been considered strong players in the M&A sector among credit institutions “.

Experts do not undertake to predict the timing of the restoration of the Russian car market. After a sharp decline in February, it began to gradually intensify due to parallel imports, the sale of used cars, the sale of stocks, lower interest rates, and also partly due to the realization of deferred demand, said Natalia Bogomolova, an analyst at NRA bank ratings. However, she adds, amid the “September events” (on Sept. 21, a partial mobilization was announced; Forbes estimates hundreds of thousands of economically active men left the country) and the lack of growth in real disposable income, consumers in general became more cautious about taking on new debt obligations, as well as refuse to purchase expensive goods.

Ksenia Dementieva, Polina Trifonova