VTB is negotiating the purchase of Bank Vozrozhdenie with Bonum Capital, VTB President Andrei Kostin told reporters at a press conference in St. Petersburg, Forbes correspondent reports. "We do not conduct negotiations with [Dmitry] Ananiev, we do not know where he is, he is not present in the country, and Bonum Capital acts on his behalf," the banker said. According to him, VTB is now in the preparation stage of documents. "Approval of the Supervisory Board, approval of the FAS, removal of arrest from 38% of the papers is necessary," Kostin explained.

The deal should take place "if no skeletons come out." "Legally, we have not yet crossed the line and binding documents were not signed," said the head of the state bank. The amount of the transaction will be less capital, he said, but did not specify the exact figure. Kostin also added that the team "Renaissance" - "fairly reliable" and "the team does not necessarily change."

The former co-owner of the currently-regulated Promsvyazbank Dmitry Ananyev owns 52.7% of Vozrozhdenie shares through six Cypriot companies. Sanction of the PSB began in mid-December 2017, and right after it, the owners of Promsvyazbank Dmitry and Alexei Ananyev received an order to reduce the share to 10% or less. Later, the periods of forced sale were repeatedly postponed, the last of which expired on June 4.

In early February, it became known that the Bonum Capital fund is in talks to buy the "Renaissance", and in mid-March, the owner of the Bonum fund Murat Aliyev was elected chairman of the board of directors of the bank, the board included five more representatives of the company. Bonum Capital is traditionally associated with Senator Suleiman Kerimov (the founder of the investment group, Murat Aliyev, until 2013, headed the department of treasury and trading operations of the Nafta-Moscow group). Nevertheless in the fund it categorically deny. "Bonum Capital is an independent investment fund not associated with Senator SA Kerimov. The only shareholder and beneficiary of the fund since the foundation is Murat Aliyev, "Bonum said in a statement for Forbes.

"The brothers Ananyev have a debt to Suleiman Kerimov. They are ready to give him a bank for a ruble. But then we are talking about a money deal - reselling the stake to the ultimate investor, "a source familiar with the situation told Kommersant. Another source of the publication specified that the Central Bank is embarrassed by the configuration in which Bonum allegedly does not intend to be the ultimate buyer.

On June 6, Bonum Capital stated that it is a participant in the transaction and now the terms are being agreed upon, and documents have not been submitted to the Central Bank, since the transaction is in the structuring stage. What is the role of Bonum Capital in the transaction involving VTB, it is unclear, the fund declined to comment on Forbes statements by Kostin.