10:00, 24 April 2020
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Russian government rapidly buys out Sberbank from Central Bank
On April 9, 2020, a stake in Sberbank was bought by the government from the Bank of Russia, Izvestia reported with reference to a source. The deal amounted to 2.14 trillion rubles, which is 300 billion less than originally planned. This is explained by the fact that Sberbank securities plunged on the Moscow Exchange.
The state monopoly shares dropped by 20% as compared to the day when the deal was announced. In February, the Ministry of Finance was going to protract the deal into several tranches. However, it was decided finally to close the deal in one fell swoop, since money is urgently needed to finance current budget expenditures. Besides, no one can predict how the situation will develop further throughout the year.
The acquisition of Sberbank was made within the framework of investing money from the National Wealth Fund (NWF). It was supposed that the fund’s liquid assets exceeding the threshold of 7% of GDP would be allocated for the purchase of shares of the state bank, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov explained earlier.