Foreign investors are interested in buying two Ukrainian state-owned banks - Ukrgasbank and Sense Bank.
"We have foreign investors interested in two state-owned banks. These are Ukrgasbank and Sense Bank, and we are actively preparing them for sale. We received these signals at the end of last year, starting in autumn," Deputy Finance Minister Yuriy Drahanchuk said, according to Ekonomichna Pravda.
In addition, the Ministry of Finance will soon use the services of financial advisers for these banks.
At the same time, the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank are working on amendments to the laws on the sale of these banks in order to make it as transparent as possible and sell them to a serious potential investor.
"I will say more, these potential investors are pushing us... At the same time, these banks are being prepared internally, and I am quite positive and we want to sell these two banks this year. But the bank that generates the most revenue in this country is not yet ready for sale," Drahanchuk summed up, referring to Privatbank.
He said that the sale of Privatbank is not being considered, but he did not rule it out in the future.
"The state has a strategy to reduce the banking sector, its [state's] presence and involvement. But we need to look at things realistically. The current market situation is such that you understand that Privatbank is the bank in which the state is ready to invest money and the bank that generates a billion dollars of state budget revenue," the official said.