MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. Russia’s Sberbank has withdrawn from the capital of Ukraine’s VS bank, according to a statement of the Russian bank.

Sberbank owned more than 99.9% of VS bank.

The press service of Sberbank clarified that now Sergei Tigipko’s TAS Group owns this share of VS Bank.

VS Bank ranks 28th in terms of assets among Ukrainian banks.

Earlier it was reported that the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) allowed Ukrainian businessman Sergei Tigipko to buy VS Bank. Sberbank owned VS Bank via its subsidiary Sberbank Europe

In late September, Ukraine’s Antimonopoly Committee gave Tigipko a similar permit to purchase the bank.

Tigipko is a Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur, he held positions in the parliament and the government of the country. In 2010-2012, he was Deputy Prime Minister, minister of social policy in the government of Nikolai Azarov. In 2002-2004, he headed the National Bank of Ukraine. In 1999-2000, Tigipko was minister of economy in the government of Viktor Yushchenko. In 1997-1999, he served as deputy prime minister in the government of Pavel Lazarenko.

Reasons for selling VS Bank

In March 2017, Ukrainian President Piotr Poroshenko imposed sanctions on five Ukrainian banks with Russian capital - Sberbank of Ukraine, VTB, Prominvestbank (owned by Vnesheconombank), VS Bank and BM Bank (owned by VTB ). After that, Russian banks announced plans to sell their assets in the country.

On September 22, Sberbank signed an agreement on the sale of VS Bank. As the head of Sberbank Herman Gref said, Sberbank has two banks in Ukraine - the first one is VS Bank, which is small and the second is Sberbank of Ukraine, which is a big one. He expressed the hope that Sberbank of Ukraine could also be sold.