Italian bank UniCredit has expanded its search for a buyer for Russian activities outside of local investors as it hastens efforts to leave the country, Reuters sources said.
UniCredit has been in talks with local stakeholders, but the escalation of Western sanctions has hampered those efforts, leading to a broadening of the search to include countries such as China and India, where one source said buyers could be open to bargaining. .
The second source is that discussions with potential investors take place, but he did not name them.
UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel told analysts in May that the sanctions had gradually reduced the chances of a deal with a Russian buyer, and “the window has become quite small”.
Russian businessman Vladimir Potanin, whose holding company Interros acquired Societe Generale’s Russian subsidiary Rosbank, said in May that he had rejected a bid to acquire UniCredit’s local arm.
The Italian bank is looking elsewhere, although a Russian deal on Russia remains possible, sources said.
Investors in China, India or Turkey – in countries that have not backed sanctions against Russia – may be interested in assets whose price has fallen since Western companies withdrew after the war in Ukraine.
UniCredit is among the European banks with the largest exposure in Russia, where it manages the 14th largest bank in the country.
Source: Capital
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