A new decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was published on Sunday on the official government portal of legal acts, has given Russian bank Rosbank permission to purchase the local assets of its former controlling shareholder, the French banking group Societe Generale.
Once complete, Rosbank will have taken up minority stakes in 24 public companies in Russia, including, VTB Bank, electric power company Rosseti, hydroelectricity company RusHydro, diamond giant Alrosa, several mining majors including Norilsk Nickel, as well as energy majors Gazprom, Surgutneftegaz, Rosneft, and Tatneft, and other companies as well.
The terms of the sale have been kept private so far. Experts note that although the details noted in the decree indicate that the individual stake in each company is relatively small, in aggregate, the sum value of the entire portfolio may be worth billions of rubles.
In the decree, it points out that it was issued in accordance with another order by President Putin, issued on August 5th, 2022. That decree required that any transactions which involved shares of strategically important Russian companies would require prior authorization from the government in Moscow. The decree also placed similar restrictions on transactions in which the asset being sold was being sold by a foreigner from an unfriendly state, meaning nations which had sanctioned Russia in connection with the conflict in Ukraine.
Although Rosbank’s controlling shareholder had been Societe Generale going back to 2008, the French banking group sold its stake in the Russian bank to Interros, one of the largest private investment companies in Russia in April of 2022. Interros belongs to Vladimir Potanin, who according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is the richest man in Russia. Interros later transferred up to 50% of the acquired shares of Rosbank to the private charitable foundation of Potanin, in an effort to protect the bank from the risk of sanctions. However in December of 2022, the US added Rosbank to the sanctions blacklist, and the bank went on to be sanctioned by the EU, UK, and Canada.
