OREANDA-NEWS. July 31, 2012. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW (CBM) and its shareholder signed the agreements on purchase of 15% of the Bank's shares by EBRD and IFC.

In accordance with the agreements, an additional issue of CBM's ordinary shares registered by the Central Bank of Russia on May 15, 2012 will be purchased by EBRD and IFC, following which the share of each of them in the updated shareholder structure of the Bank will be 7.5%, while the total amount of investments will reach RUB 5.8bln. The share capital of the current sole shareholder of CBM, ROSSIUM Concern, will be reduced to 85%. Under the agreements, EBRD and IFC will become eligible to appoint their representatives to the CBM's Supervisory Board.

Vladimir Chubar, CBM's Chairman of Management Board, said: "We welcome IFC and EBRD as our new shareholders. It is a key milestone for our Bank and an important step in our long-term partnership, which opens for us new opportunities to grow beyond our current reach. This investment will spur our extensive development and expansion, strengthen the Bank’s capital and add value to the relationships with our partners, clients and investors, both existing and potential ones."

EBRD has expressed its confidence that the investment will allow CBM to achieve its business and corporate governance objectives and will provide important institutional support for the Bank’s plans to launch an Initial Public Offering (IPO) during the course of the next five years, market conditions permitting.

Commenting on IFC joining the Bank's equity, Tomasz Telma, IFC director for Europe and Central Asia, said: "Promoting access to finance and, in particular, for small and medium businesses is our priority globally and in Russia. CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW shares our vision and strategy. We look forward to help the Bank grow both in terms of size and regional coverage."

The Bank has been working with IFC and EBRD over 7 years on a variety of projects, including trade financing, Tier II capital financing, syndicated loans arrangement, as well as financing of target projects to support small and medium enterprises, mortgage programs, agribusiness and energy efficiency projects.