Russia's bad bank preps sale of VTB Bank stake – Reuters

Russia's bad bank National Bank Trust PJSC intends to divest its 9% stake in VTB Bank PJSC via an accelerated book building in March, Reuters reported, citing financial market sources.

National Bank Trust is currently preparing the sale process. VTB Capital, Citi and JP Morgan are expected to arrange the deal, although a final decision regarding the arrangers has not yet been made, the newswire noted in its Jan. 29 report.

The VTB stake used to be owned by Otkritie Financial Corp. Bank, which was bailed out by the Russian central bank in 2017. The stake was later acquired by National Bank Trust, which holds bad and noncore assets of several bailed-out lenders. The sale of the stake is part of the central bank's plans to recover some of the 2 trillion rubles worth of funds spent on the bailouts, Reuters noted, estimating the stake's value at 43 billion rubles.

As of Jan. 28, US$1 was equivalent to 75.96 Russian rubles.