Marfin buys controlling stake in Russian bank

CYPRIOT lender Marfin Popular Bank (MPB) said yesterday it had agreed to acquire a 50.4 per cent stake in RPB Holding, which controls Russian lender Rosprombank, for €83 million.

Rosprombank has a network of 30 branches covering major Russian cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, and employs 485 people. MPB said Rosprombank had total assets of $387 million at the end of September. It expects profit of $17 million this year.

“The expansion of the bank into the Russian banking market is another step in the fast growth of our international activities,” said MPB Chief Executive Andreas Vgenopoulos in a statement.

MPB plans to expand Rosprombank into a full-service bank.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2008, after regulatory approval from the relevant authorities in Cyprus and Russia.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.