By Andrei Skvarsky.
Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank is going to become the sole owner of Russia’s Cetelem Bank, the country’s number one car loan provider, by enlarging its capital in the firm to 100 per cent under an agreement with BNP Paribas that awaits regulatory approval in Russia and France.
Under the terms of the deal, whose French signatory is BNP Paribas Personal Finance, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the BNP Paribas group, Sberbank is to buy out a 20.8 per cent stake in Cetelem from Leval 20, a French company that, in turn, is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas Personal Finance, Sberbank said in a statement.
Sberbank bought into Cetelem in 2012 under a joint venture agreement with BNP Paribas Personal Finance, France’s leading personal finance firm, that gave the Russian bank the option to boost its capital in the auto lender to 100 per cent.
Cetelem is the leader in Russia’s car loan market in terms of portfolio size and sales volumes. It plans to further enlarge its portfolio.
Sberbank is gradually changing its name to Sber in the course of rebranding launched last month.
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