Gref and his Sberbank leave the Balkans
Sberbank Europe is selling its branches in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Hungary in order to “focus on priority markets and explore new business models.”
This was reported by the bank's press service, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“On November 3, 2021, Sberbank Europe AG, a subsidiary of the Sberbank Group, signed an agreement with the AIK Banka a.d. group of companies. Beograd, Gorenjska Banka d.d., Kranj and Agri Europe Cyprus Limited on the sale of their subsidiary banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sberbank BH d.d. Sarajevo and Sberbank a.d. Banja Luka), Croatia (Sberbank d.d.), Hungary (Sberbank Magyarország Zrt.), Serbia (Sberbank Srbija a.d. Beograd) and Slovenia (Sberbank banka d.d.) with total assets of 7,329 billion euros, 162 branches and about 600 thousand clients (at the end of 2020),” according to a release posted on the Sberbank website.
Sberbank Europe AG explains its decision by the desire to “focus on priority markets and explore new business models.” At the same time, the Czech branch of Sberbank Czech Republic will not be sold and will continue to operate as usual.
“The total amount of the transaction will be about 500 million euros, including the sale of shares and replacement of financing provided by Sber,” the bank’s press service reports.
Experts in the banking sector are actively commenting on this news.
“Sber’s sale of the European banking business initially sounded unclear in terms of causes and consequences. But the puzzle was completed yesterday by Vice Chairman David Rafalovsky, who simultaneously announced the opening of Sber’s R&D center in Berlin. Now the combination becomes clearer.
In essence, the banksters got rid of the traditional banking business in Eastern Europe - stagnant and not very promising - and relied on the development of the ecosystem and fintech.
The technology office in Berlin should become a hub for talented IT specialists working in the West (including those who left Russia): it turns out that Sber is “bringing back the brains” to work on the Russian market,” the banksta telegram channel comments on the asset dump.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.