Sberbank was the first Russian state bank, which managed to agree on the sale of its Ukrainian subsidiary. The buyers will be Norvik Banka owned by Grigory Guselnikov and businessman Said Gutseriev (through the Belarusian company), who will get control in Sberbank Ukraine.

Sberbank reached an agreement on the sale of its Ukrainian subsidiary to a consortium of investors. The buyers are Norvik Banka (Latvia) and a private Belarusian company. Sberbank promises to fulfill its obligations to all Ukrainian customers and expresses the hope that the announcement of the deal will help unlock the offices of Sberbank, currently besieged by Ukrainian activists. Closing of the transaction is expected in the first half of 2017 after the approval by the regulators of Ukraine.

PJSC Sberbank (Ukraine), according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), is among the top-7 largest banks in the country in terms of assets: 47 billion hryvnia (about 100 billion rubles or $1.7 billion). The number of private clients of the bank exceeds 1 million, the bank serves more than 31 thousand customers of small and medium business and more than 5 thousand corporate clients. The regional network of the bank has 150 branches. PJSC "Sberbank" (Ukraine) is 100% owned by the Russian Sberbank. According to the international reporting of the Ukrainian Sberbank, according to the results of three quarters of 2016 (later data are not available), the bank's assets amount to 47.2 billion hryvnia, of which loans to customers - 40.16 billion hryvnia, liabilities - 43.6 billion hryvnia, including: to banks (mainly the parent bank) - 26.3 billion hryvnia, to individuals - 11 billion hryvnia, ещ companies - 5.8 billion hryvnia. Aggregate capital - 3.59 billion hryvnia. For 9 months of 2016, the Ukrainian Sberbank received a loss of 2.9 billion hryvnia.

AS Norvik Banka now ranks seventh in Latvia in terms of assets and in the first place in the country by the size of the branch network. The Bank's services are used by more than 150 thousand customers.

According to the interlocutors of "Kommersant", close to the NBU, the decision to sell the Russian asset and a fundamentally positive conclusion was received last week.

Ukrainian Sberbank is the largest and most interesting subsidiary among all that belong to Russian state-owned banks. Until recently, the NBU said that it was Sberbank that would be the hardest to sell its business because of its scale. However, after the introduction of sanctions by Ukraine against the subsidiaries of Russian state banks that effectively blocked the possibility of settlements with the head structures, the head of Sberbank Herman Gref said that he was in search of an operational option for leaving the Ukrainian market.

The interlocutors of Kommersant assure that Grigory Guselnikov had negotiated with Sberbank even earlier, but then the seller could dictate its terms and the deal did not take place. The price of the transaction announced yesterday is unknown. Previously, potential buyers estimated the Ukrainian subsidiary of Sberbank at $450-680 million. Grigory Guselnikov (through Norvik Banka) will acquire 45%, Said Gutseriev - 55%.

As explained by Mr. Guselnikov, AS Norvik Banka and he himself signed an agreement to participate in an investment consortium to acquire the Ukrainian division of the Russian Sberbank. The majority shareholder of the new consortium was the British national Said Gutseriev and the Belorussian company that he owns.

Said Gutseriev, who graduated from London's Harrow School and Oxford University, worked in one of the world's largest companies - Glencore. Now Said Gutseriev is engaged in direct investments in projects in various spheres of the economy around the world.

"This transaction will offer Ukrainian customers a service built on European principles of quality, transparency and accessibility, while preserving the technological level of the bank," Mr. Guselnikov said. "We support the European choice of Ukraine and we believe that our work will help the future economic growth of the country". According to the head of Norvik Banka Oliver Bramwell, the Ukrainian economy passed the lowest point of the crisis.

Together with the main transaction, AS Norvik Banka has planned a number of measures to reduce its presence in the Russian banking market, Grigory Guselnikov said. This will raise the efficiency of investments and eliminate a number of political risks associated with the geography of the bank's work, he concluded.