OREANDA-NEWS. January 25, 2010. IFC and Varde Partners (USA) intend to buy out EUR 450mn of toxic assets from the commercial banks of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), including Ukraine. Note that this is the second announcement, which concerns the purchase of toxic assets from Ukrainian banks. Namely, in early January, EBRD and IFC invested EUR 200mn into the establishment of CEE Special Situations Fund, which was to buy out toxic assets from CEE commercial banks.

Millennium Capital sees the news to be positive for the domestic banks, since the purchase of toxic assets will enable the commercial banks to release funds from the loan reserves, which would be subsequently invested to support their operational activities. Millennium Capital takes a positive outlook for the commercial banks in 2010, anticipating their recovery in 2H10.