Expobank CZ

History

2022: Sale of the bank to a group of investors and Latvian Signet

March 10, 2022 it became known about the sale of the Czech Expobank CZ to a consortium of investors, which included the private Latvian bank Signet and a group of American investors. The financial and other terms of the transaction are not disclosed. To close it, you need permission from the National Bank of the Czech Republic. As soon as it is received, the Czech bank will not have Russian shareholders, said the representative of Expobank CZ Jakub Shvestka.

According to TASS, citing the press service of Expobank (the main shareholder is Russian businessman Igor Kim), the sale of the Czech credit institution is carried out as part of the implementation of the earlier decision to withdraw Expobank from the European Union.

Russian businessman Igor Kim sold Czech Expobank CZ

At the end of January 2022, Signet closed the acquisition of Latvian AS Expobank. The combined Latvian bank will continue to operate under the Signet Bank brand as part of the adopted strategy. Igor Kim also owns Expobank JSC, a bank in Serbia, by March 10, 2022.

2021

In December 2021, Igor Kim allowed the sale of European business and then talked about negotiating with potential buyers.

In general, when the right buyer appears, with a reputation, understandable strategy and the right price, then we are, of course, ready for this. And in general, we understand that in order to get the maximum effect in Russia, we intend to more allocate capital now to Russia, "the banker said.

According to him, the Russian Expobank is actively developing, and in a technological sense, it manages to achieve good results in Russia. Against this background, the bank will try to allocate capital to Russia more, especially since there is no "margin in Europe," Kim pointed out.

The European banking market is stable, but does not show serious growth rates, agrees Yuri Belikov, managing director of the validation department of the Expert RA rating agency.^[1]

Notes