Alexander Lebedev said goodbye to money

The state transport leasing company acquired 76.27% of the National Reserve Bank, which was almost 80% owned by Alexander Lebedev, the amount of his package in different years was estimated from 4 to 8 billion rubles.
09.12.2019
RBC
Origin source
The State Transport Leasing Company (GTLK) acquired 76.27% of the voting shares of the National Reserve Bank. This is stated in the GTLK message on the corporate disclosure portal.

Details of the transaction are not specified. GTLK is the largest leasing company in Russia. According to data from October of this year, the volume of GTLK's leasing portfolio exceeded 1.029 trillion rubles. The sole shareholder of the company is the Ministry of Transport of Russia (100% of the shares).

A Lebedev representative told RBC that Alexander Lebedev decided to get out of the banking business. He made such a decision "in order to avoid reputational dissonance in connection with many years of activity to investigate corruption and theft in the financial sector." “He intends to focus his efforts on socially significant start-ups (in particular, in the field of environmentally friendly transport and public catering, aimed at transforming Russia into country No. 1 in a healthy lifestyle), media and journalism (launch of the Russian version of The Independet, television and cinema production), as well as public projects, including the creation of an international system to counteract the legalization of criminally acquired incomes and the repatriation of illegally withdrawn capital to Russia, ”said Lebedev’s representative. He refused to disclose the specific parameters of the transaction.

RBC sent a request to the press service of the GTLK.

In September, Kommersant, citing sources, wrote that co-owner of the National Reserve Corporation (NRC) Alexander Lebedev and his partner Yuri Kudimov plan to sell almost 97% in the National Reserve Bank (NRB). According to SPARK, before the transaction, 78.19% of the shares of NRB belonged to Lebedev through the NRC, 18.68% to Yuri Kudimov through the Cyprus Ginsberero Trading Limited, and another 2.74% to the Federal Property Management Agency. According to the newspaper’s interlocutors, GTLK will buy Lebedev’s stake in NRB, and the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) will buy Kudimov’s share. Also, according to the publication, the deal with NRB could amount to 7–8 billion rubles.

Who exactly sold the block of shares of GTLK and in what size is not reported.

Since 2008, the Federal Property Management Agency has been trying to sell its stake in the National Reserve Bank, but auctions have always been postponed due to the lack of buyers. In December 2016, the agency again put up its 2.7% stake in NRB at the auction of the Russian Auction House. The lot was presented with an initial price of 100 million rubles. The cut-off price (the minimum price at which a package can be sold at these auctions) was 50 million rubles.

In May 2015, Vedomosti wrote that Anatoly Motylev, the owner of Russian Credit Bank, could become the buyer of the National Reserve Bank (NRB) Lebedev. The interlocutors of the publication called the amount of 4.5 billion rubles as the value of the transaction. One of the terms of the deal, according to the newspaper, was the sale of two An-124 aircraft, which remained with Lebedev after the sale of a stake in Ilyushin finance.

In 2012, the Central Bank passed checks in the NRB. This led to a massive outflow of deposits of individuals (according to January 2012, their volume amounted to 8.1 billion rubles). At the beginning of 2013, Alexander Lebedev announced to Kommersant his intention to sell the NRB and focus on the publishing business. At the beginning of 2015, the bank closed all its branches in the regions and left one branch in Moscow. In August of this year, NRB held 161st place in the banking system of Russia in terms of assets (16 billion rubles). As of January 1, the company's net profit is 39.2 million rubles.

Now, according to Forbes, Lebedev’s fortune is estimated at $ 400 million. The last time he took 188th place in the ranking of Russia's 200 richest businessmen in 2015. In 2012-2013, the banker sold almost all of his package of Aeroflot (15%) to replenish the capital of NRB. Today, in the assets of Lebedev NRB, he is also a co-owner and publisher of Novaya Gazeta, the British newspaper Evening Standard and The Independent. The latter businessman owns through the London Lebedev Holdings Ltd, which is framed on the son of Lebedev Eugene.

In January 2014, The Guardian wrote that Lebedev put up the British newspaper The Independent for sale. Then Lebedev denied this information. “This [rumors of a possible sale of The Independent] is the fifth time in two years. The Guardian is terribly frightened by the increase in the circulation of the Independent and Evening Standard and the possibility of the transition of Independent to the free format, ”said TASS Lebedev.

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