You're reading: EBRD wants to sell minority stake in Oschadbank at exchange

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) intends to buy a stake in state-owned Oschadbank (Kyiv) in the amount of 10-25% depending on the price, and sell it in three or five years at one of the Ukrainian exchanges, EBRD Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus Francis Malige has said.

“We are interested in buying 10-25% of shares. We plan to bring the bank to an exchange in three or five years or sell its minority stake to an investor… It would be better to bring it to one of the Ukrainian exchanges,” he said in an interview with Novoye Vremia weekly.

Selling the bank to a foreign group is not the most effective decision, he said.

Malige said that the EBRD last year started working with the Ukrainian bank in the trade financing and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) crediting sphere.

Oschadbank was founded in 1991. It is wholly owned by the state.

Oschadbank ranked second among 93 operating banks in the country on January 1, 2017 by total assets (Hr 210.099 billion), according to the National Bank of Ukraine.