The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, together with representatives of Ukrgasbank and Sense Bank, has signed agreements with the UK company N. M. Rothschild & Sons Limited (Rothschild & Co group).
As stated on the Finance Ministry’s website, the group will act as financial adviser in preparing the two state-owned banks for privatisation.
Rothschild & Co will work in a consortium with the Ukrainian company FinPoint. The winner of the competitive selection will carry out a financial analysis of the state-owned banks, help determine their starting price, prepare the necessary materials for investors, and assist in organising the sale tender.
Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko stressed that bringing in an international adviser is an important step towards reducing the state’s share in the banking sector and will help ensure the sale is conducted transparently and competitively.
Engaging an adviser is only a preparatory stage, so there is no change of ownership at present. Both financial institutions continue to operate as normal and fully meet all obligations to customers, the Finance Ministry assured.
What Is Known About the Sale of Sense Bank and Ukrgasbank
- On 18 October, reports emerged that the government had set up a commission to sell state shareholdings in Sense Bank and Ukrgasbank. Representatives of international financial organisations and EU institutions may be involved in the commission’s work.
- Sense Bank (formerly Alfa-Bank) was nationalised in 2023 due to its Russian owners.
- Its main shareholders were Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and other partners from Alfa Group.
- In August this year, Koretskyi said that the Ministry of Finance had been tasked by the government with stepping up the process of selling Sense Bank.
- In addition, the institution’s management began to feature in high-profile investigations by anti-corruption agencies. According to NABU, the bank’s chair of the management board and chair of the supervisory board, Oleksii Stupak and Mykola Hladyshenko, in collusion with former MP Maksym Mykytas, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Iryna Mudra and other members of a criminal group, ensured the posting of bail of UAH 150 million obtained illegally for former minister Herman Halushchenko, who is a suspect in a case concerning corruption at Energoatom.
- Some of the funds were channelled through Sense Bank. To move the money, automatic financial monitoring was switched off, and it was also not carried out manually.
- On 19 August, the government suspended Hladyshenko. The Cabinet of Ministers also initiated the suspension of Stupak.
- At a meeting on 21 August, the Cabinet of Ministers terminated the powers of Hladyshenko as chair of the supervisory board.