Hungary’s OTP Bank is considering leaving Russia

Hungary’s OTP Bank is considering leaving Russia

OTP Group head Péter Csányi told Bloomberg that the bank is reviewing its strategy in Russia, including because of plans to expand its business abroad. At the same time, OTP acknowledges that “a sale is currently practically impossible,” since the owners of the Russian asset would be able to receive only 5% of its value, while any potential buyer would have to satisfy both the Kremlin and European authorities.

The question of its Russian business is especially important for OTP because of its purchase of the Baltic bank Luminor. In July, the group agreed to acquire it from funds managed by Blackstone and DNB. The deal will allow OTP to enter the markets of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and increase the group’s assets by more than 10%.

@meduzalive