Samruk-Kazyna should expedite the sale of its majority stakes in BTA Bank and Alliance Bank, Kazakhstan's central bank chairman Grigoriy Marchenko stated, saying that the state should not have a major shareholding role in the countries' commercial banks.
Marchenko said on Wednesday the central bank would support any efforts by Samruk-Kazyna, the state holding and investment company, to sell its stakes in the two banks. Samruk-Kazyna has acquired control over the banks following their recent debt restructuring.
"We have always said that the state should exit the capital structure of commercial banks. When? Samruk-Kazyna's last announcement said in the course of two years, but if it happens before then, we will only support it," Marchenko told reporters. "We believe that the state should not own a controlling stake, or even a blocking stake, in a commercial bank," he said.
Marchenko said that in order to recover its assets in Russia, BTA needs a strong Russian partner.
"Given that the return of assets is an important task for BTA, and that a large portion of these assets are in Russia, a strong Russian partner is needed," he said. "If not Sberbank, then it could be VTB or Gazprombank."
Sberbank has figured prominently as a potential buyer of BTA. Earlier this year, the Russian bank said that it would consider acquiring a major stake in BTA only after the debt restructuring process is completed, likely in September .
Alliance, currently the country's sixth-largest lender by assets, completed its debt restructuring in March , having cut its debt to just over $1 billion from $4.5 billion. Samruk-Kazyna is now a 67-percent shareholder.
BTA Bank has won approval from its creditors to restructure its debt and reduce its liabilities from $12.2 billion to $4.4 billion last Friday. As a result of the restructuring, Samruk-Kazyna will be the bank's biggest shareholder holding 81.5 percent.
SRI
