Tomas Fiala, head of investment firm Dragon Capital, has bought most of the shares of Unex Bank from pro-Russian oligarch Vadim Novinsky.
Fiala on April 16 purchased 75.01% of the shares through Dragon Capital, while the other 24.99% went to Ivan Svitek, a former top manager at the Ukrainian branch of Russia’s bank Alfa Bank.
Neither Dragon Capital nor Svitek disclosed how much they paid.
After the agreement, Svitek became the chairman of the board at UnexBank.
Dragon Capital and Ivan Svitek plan to make UnexBank one of the main players in the Ukrainian banking sector, according to a statement by Dragon Capital.
“We plan to make the bank a leader in the quality of customer service and new innovative products in the next few years,” said Fiala.
The National Bank of Ukraine, which regulates the banking sphere in the country, approved the sale on April 1. Earlier, in December 2020, Ukraine’s Anti-Monopoly Committee also allowed Dragon Capital to buy the major stake of the Unex Bank.
Before the acquisition, the bank belonged to Vadim Novinsky, a pro-Russian oligarch and independent lawmaker, through the company Withine Investments.
Last year Unex Bank was ranked the fifth in the NBU’s list of the most unprofitable banks. Unex Bank’s losses amounted to Hr 36.6 million, or $1.3 million.
Before Unex Bank, Dragon Capital planned to buy Idea Bank from the Polish company Getin Holding. However, on June 25, 2020 companies stopped negotiations.
Fiala told news website Liga that the companies couldn’t agree on a price amid the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We signed the sale and purchase agreement in December 2019, but the final cost of the shares had to be agreed after additional due diligence. Unfortunately, we haven’t agreed with the seller on the final figures,” he said.
