After the transfer of shares in the First Investment Bank (PinBank) to Ukrposhta, the company will offer minority shareholders who own about 12% of the shares a buyout procedure, and in case of refusal, it will “dilute” their share to 5% by applying the compulsory purchase procedure, the company’s CEO Igor Smelyansky said in an exclusive interview withInterfax-Ukraine.
“We have to consolidate the remaining 12% of the bank’s shares, which are currently owned by minority shareholders,” he said.
According to him, an independent appraiser will be engaged to assess the bank’s current capitalization and thus determine the market price of the stakes held by minority shareholders.
“This is the amount we will offer them. Of course, it is their right to accept or refuse. If they refuse, Ukrposhta, as the majority shareholder of the bank, will have the opportunity to decide to increase the bank’s capital. Accordingly, the share of minority shareholders may be “diluted” to almost 5%. This will make it possible to apply the procedure of compulsory redemption of shares. That is why our plan is quite clear and irreversible,” explained Smelyansky.
He also said that at the first stage of the bank’s integration into Ukrposhta’s structure, operational and IT audits will be conducted, and the supervisory board and team of Ukrposhta Bank will be formed.
“We already understand that we will need to invest in the creation of modern and reliable IT systems of the bank. We also have to carry out preparatory work at Ukrposhta to integrate the bank into the existing infrastructure. We need to form a team, and, objectively, we need a new team to fulfill the range of tasks we set,” Smelyansky said.
As reported, according to information on the PINbank website, as of February 9, 2023, the second shareholder after Yevhen Giner, who owned 88.890583%, was Oleksandr Shadruk’s Ukrpravo Law Firm LLC with a share of 9.509417%, while the remaining shareholders had 1.6%. However, the Renome venture capital non-diversified closed-end investment fund managed by Renome-2008 Asset Management Company LLC reported an increase in its stake in PINbank from 1.6% to 5.9478%, while Ukrprav’s stake decreased to 5.0929%. In addition, on February 6, 2023, the National Bank of Ukraine decided to transfer the voting rights on Giner’s shares to its trustee Gennadiy Mykhaylenko.
At the end of September 2023, PINbank ranked 57th among 63 Ukrainian banks in terms of total assets (UAH 482 million). Its net loss for 9 months of 2022 amounted to UAH 30 million, but due to the bank’s liquidity, the issue of its transfer to the DGF was not raised at the moment.
