Business news from Ukraine

UKRAINE PLANS PRIVATIZATION OF STATE BANKS

4 September , 2020  

The Cabinet of Ministers at a meeting on September 2 updated the principles of strategic reform of state-owned banks, which envisage reducing the state’s share in the banking sector from 60% to 25% by 2025 through partial or full privatization of each of the four state-owned banks.

According to the text of the corresponding document, posted on the website of the Ministry of Finance, the state plans to find a minority investor for Ukeximbank with potential privatization in the long term.

In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers kept plans for the state’s withdrawal from PrivatBank’s capital in the future, as well as for converting a loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank into additional capital of Ukrgasbank. In particular, it is planned that an agreement between the IFC and Ukrgasbank will be concluded by October 2020.

The principals of strategic reform of state banks also indicate that at the moment the state is creating all the necessary prerequisites to ensure the entry of international financial organizations into the capital of Oschadbank by the end of 2020, in particular in October 2020 the latter is planned to enter the Deposit Guarantee Fund.

According to the government’s expectations, the participation of international financial organizations in the capital of Oschadbank will lead to a major or full privatization of the bank by the end of 2025.

The corresponding document also specifies that preparations for the state’s withdrawal from the capital of the banks will begin after the end of the “coronavirus crisis” and the achievement of a stable economic recovery (GDP growth over two quarters), but no later than December 2021.