OREANDA-NEWS. November 27, 2009. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is set to become a new shareholder in Promsvyazbank. The corresponding agreements have been signed today between EBRD, Promsvyazbank and its existing shareholders, reported the press-centre of PSB.

According to the agreements, EBRD and Commerzbank will participate in a private placement of PSB new common shares.

EBRD will thereby become a new PSB shareholder with an 11.7457% stake. The EBRD investment is expected to total approximately RUB 4.6 billion, which would make it the largest EBRD equity investment in a Russian bank to date. The arrangement will entitle EBRD to nominate a member to the PSB Board of Directors.

Commerzbank, PSB’s existing minority shareholder, will maintain its share in PSB capital at 15.3199%. The share of Promsvyaz Capital B.V. will decrease to 72.9344%.

The agreements have been signed by Alexey Ananiev, Chairman of PSB Board of Directors, Nick Tesseyman, Business Group Director in charge of the Financial Institutions at EBRD, and Wilhelm Nuese, Divisional Board Member for Eastern Europe at Commerzbank.

The agreements will come into effect when the deal receives regulatory approval.

“Having EBRD as a new shareholder is a positive development for our Bank, which reaffirms our strong market position,” says Alexander Levkovskiy, PSB’s President. “We are very pleased that our longstanding and fruitful cooperation has laid the basis for an equity participation by the EBRD in PSB. This will take our partnership to a new level, and allow us to explore new opportunities,” Mr. Levkovskiy said.

“Providing equity for a systemic bank should send an important message helping to boost confidence in good Russian names at a time when many financial markets are virtually closed and most investors still display extreme risk-aversion,” comments Nick Tesseyman, EBRD Business Group Director for Financial Institutions.

The new share issue is expected to increase PSB equity by a total amount of approximately RUB 5.4 billion. The private placement of 144,850,846,000 common shares was approved by PSB Extraordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting in October. The share price will be set at PSB Board of Directors meeting preliminarily scheduled for 25 November 2009.

The beneficiary owners of Promsvyaz Capital B.V. are Messrs. Alexey Ananiev and Dmitry Ananiev.

Commerzbank Auslandsbanken Holding AG is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Commerzbank AG, one of the largest banks in Germany.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is an international financial institution that supports projects in 30 countries from central Europe to central Asia. The Bank invests mainly in private enterprises, provides project financing for banks and corporates, both new ventures and existing companies. It also works with publicly-owned companies to support privatization, restructuring of state-owned firms and improvement of municipal services. EBRD is owned by 61 countries and two intergovernmental institutions.