No purchase of Strabag shares
Raiffeisen Bank International cancels Russia deal
May 8, 2024, 5:11 p.m
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Raiffeisen Bank International wants to bring profits previously frozen in Russia back to Austria through a deal with shares in the construction group Strabag. But nothing comes of it: for reasons of caution, as the financial institution says.
The Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) has canceled a planned business deal with Russia. In recent exchanges with the relevant authorities, the bank “did not receive the necessary comfort to carry out the planned transaction,” the financial institution said. The bank therefore decided to refrain from the transaction for reasons of caution. The RBI wanted to acquire 28.5 million shares in the Austrian construction group Strabag worth more than one billion euros through its Russian subsidiary.
The 24.1 percent stake in Strabag belonged to a Russian billionaire who was sanctioned because of the Russian attack on Ukraine. The billionaire sold his shares to another, unsanctioned investor a few weeks ago. With the deal, Raiffeisen Bank hoped to be able to bring part of its billions in profits, which had been frozen at a Russian subsidiary, to Austria.
Since Strabag has German subsidiaries, the German Federal Ministry of Economics initiated an investment review, according to government sources. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, RBI says it has significantly reduced its activities in Russia. Regardless of the decision to cancel the planned transaction, RBI emphasized again that it would continue to strive for the deconsolidation of its Russian subsidiary. The RBI is under pressure from the European Central Bank (ECB), which recently called for a further significant reduction in Raiffeisen’s lending business in Russia from the middle of this year.