OREANDA-NEWS. March 31, 2010. The management of both Ukrinbank <UKIB UK N/R> and Avtokrazbank <AKRB UK N/R>, the 57th and 101th Ukrainian banks by assets, respectively, in 2009, disclosed their preliminary plans to merge. The final decision on the bank’s merger will be made after their shareholders’ approval at the EGM of both these banks. However, the agenda of today’s EGM of AKRB does include this matter.

Millennium Capital considers that a similar deal may be considered as an acquisition of AKRB by UKIB, since the latter has significantly better investment opportunities and has access to foreign capital. This follows from the recent changes in UKIB’s ownership capital (a reduction in the stake of its major shareholders from 75.44% to 15.44% in early 2010) and a significant share of other banks’ loans in its liabilities (49%).