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EBRD takes 28 percent equity stake in Russian regional bank
Investment makes EBRD largest single shareholder in Tatartstan’s Spurt Bank
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to acquire a
28.25 percent stake in Tatarstan’s Spurt Bank from existing shareholders as
part of its long-term strategy to support the development of regional banks
and encourage lending to the small and medium-sized businesses holding the key
to Russia’s economic diversification.
This investment will make the EBRD Spurt bank’s largest single shareholder,
said the EBRD’s Kurt Geiger, Business Group Director, Financial Institutions.
It will help strengthen Spurt Bank’s capital, bolster its position in its home
market as well as finance this innovative and customer-oriented bank’s
strategy of regional expansion and the EBRD particularly welcomes Spurt Bank’s
commitment to continue its drive to improve corporate governance, Mr. Geiger
added.
Spurt Bank, established in 1992 with headquarters in Kazan, is the
fifth-largest bank in terms of total assets in the Russian republic of
Tatarstan. Traditionally a corporate bank, it recently switched to a strategy
of developing into a universal bank, expanding into retail and targeting small
businesses, including with the help of a 280 million rouble credit line from
the EBRD in 2005.
Other financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
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