BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

15/06/2007

VTB to quadruple capital of its Belarussian subsidiary to $200 mln

MINSK. June 15 (Interfax) - VTB (RTS: VTBR) is planning to increase the capital of Slavneftebank, its Belarussian subsidiary, to $200 million.

The bank will be renamed VTB-Belarus.

VTB President Andrei Kostin announced plans to increase the bank's capital during a meeting with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday in Minsk.

VTB bought an additional issue of Slavneftebank shares with a par value of 20.1 billion Bel. rubles ($9.4 million) for $25.443 million in April 2007 and became the owner of 50% plus one share in the bank. The bank's charter capital doubled to 40.173 billion rubles ($18.7 million) after the additional issue. Its equity also doubled to the equivalent of $50 million.

The equity increase to $200 million will take place soon and VTB plans "to increase the Belarussian bank's equity 10-fold" by 2010, Kostin said. VTB is also planning to open 60-70 offices in Belarus over the next two to three years. "We are ready to not only work with enterprises, including oil and chemical complexes, but with the public," he said.

The official exchange rate on June 15 is 2,145 Bel. rubles/$1.

Source:

http://www.interfax.com/3/283163/news.aspx

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