Azerbaijan, Baku, March 4, Trend , N. Ismailova, I. Mamedov
VMHY GROUP, an international group of investors led by UK banker and financier Peter Hambro, has submitted application to the Privatization Agency of Latvia over purchase of part of Latvia's Parex Bank.
VMHY GROUP is eager to buy Parex Bank's private capital management division; the offer also assumes acquisition of credits issued by the bank in the CIS states.
The offer assumes takeover of clients of Parex Bank's Private Capital Management Direction in Baltic countries and the CIS and their deposits, and daughter companies Parex Asset Management and AP Anlage und Privatbank (Switzerland).
Peter Hambro told journal Lietišķā Diena in an interview that Parex Bank had good performance to become a successful European-class financial player. Geographically, Latvia is situated very profitably: between Russia and the rest Europe. Riga is a very suitable place for VMHY GROUP to offer its intermediary financial services to clients in the CIS; Parex Bank has already had the necessary experience.
Hambro made one of his most successful investments in Russia where he and his partners own the majority of shares of Petropavlovsk plc, one of Russia's biggest goldmines (earlier - Peter Hambro Mining PLC), shares of which are in demand at the LSE.
Through VMHY GROUP, Hambro and his partners own bank M2M Private Bank and bank ATB in the Russia's Far East. In 2008, VMHY GROUP sold Expobank to one of the world's biggest banks, Barclays PLC.
The Parex Bank Baku Office has confirmed that apart from the UK investor, a Spanish bank and a Swedish bank currently also are eager to buy the bank.
'Decision about sale of the bank will be taken late this March. At the moment, there are the following two plans of restoration of the bank's operation: either division of the assets into healthy ones and bad ones with a subsequent sale or sale of the whole bank', said Andrejs Krivans, Chief of the Parex Bank Baku Office.
'Despite the fact that no plan of Parex Bank's division into 'good' part and 'bad' part has been confirmed yet, Spanish bank Santander is also eager to buy Parex, said telecast De Facto of the Latvian Television.
Santander is the Spain's biggest profit bank named the world's third biggest bank in terms of profit in 2008. Santander owns three British banks: Abbey, Bradford & Bingley, and Alliance & Leicester. Santander also has a great influence upon Latin America.
Peter Greif, the Spokesman for Santander, declined to give direct answer and only said, 'All that I could have said in this context would be assessed as a comment, and that's why I'd better abstain from making comments'.
According to De Facto, Swedbank, Nordea and DnB Nord are also eager to buy Parex Bank.
Parex Bank was founded in 1992. Its branch offices, representations and daughter companies are situated in 12 countries worldwide; this number includes the branch offices in Berlin, Stockholm and Tallinn. Parex Bank is Latvia and Lithuania's only partner with American Express having the right to issue credit cards American Express. The main stockholder of Parex Bank currently is Privatizācijas aģentūra. A package of Parex Bank's 51,444,325 shares with the voting authority is owned by the EBRD, an equivalent to 25 percent plus one share of the bank's capital stock.
The Parex Bank's combined portfolio on Azerbaijan currently is equivalent to $200 million, including the portfolio of the daughter leasing company operational in Azerbaijan and credit lines.
Parex Bank established Parex Leasing and Factoring in Azerbaijan in March 2005. Parex Bank's leasing companies have also been operational in Moscow, St.-Petersburg, Kiev, Minsk, Tallinn and Vilnius.