RBI signs agreement to sell Belarus subsidiary as part of ‘de-risking strategy’
Austria-based Raiffeisen Bank International (‘RBI’) has announced the signing of an agreement to sell its 87.74% stake in Priorbank JSC — a subsidiary in Belarus — at a loss to an investor in the United Arab Emirates (‘UAE’).
‘At closing, the transaction is expected to have an estimated negative impact of approximately EUR 300 million on RBI Group’s consolidated profit,’ the bank announced in a press release, 20 September.
‘With the completion of this transaction, RBI will have successfully exited the Belarusian market, and thereby reduced its operational complexity in line with its de-risking strategy in Eastern Europe,’ said the bank, which has been under mounting pressure also to exit from Russia, where it remains one of the largest Western banks still operating there. Most Western banks have exited since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Negotiations for the sale of Priorbank JSC and its subsidiaries to UAE-based Soven 1 Holding Limited were announced in February.
