OREANDA-NEWS. December 23, 2010. Nomos Bank ("Nomos" or "the Bank"), one of the leading privately-owned banks in Russia, communicates that having received the necessary approvals from the Central Bank of Russia and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation, it has today completed a further transaction giving it a total interest of 51.29% in Bank Khanty-Mansyisk ("BKM"), a universal banking group strongly rooted in the wealthy western Siberian regions of the Russian Federation. The consideration paid by Nomos for the above shareholding is RUB 12.1 billion (EUR 290.3 million), reported the press-centre of NOMOS BANK.

Nomos’ purchase of a controlling shareholding in BKM is the latest in a series of acquisitions by the Bank as it actively pursues its strategy of expanding its presence across the Russian Federation, diversifying its sources of revenue, broadening its retail network and increasing its ability to market a diverse range of products and services to companies and individuals. This extends Nomos presence at a national level and in particular in the highly attractive Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region and Novosibirsk Region.

BKM, headquartered in the city of Khanty-Mansiysk, has 180 outlets (including its subsidiary bank), approximately 4,000 employees and assets of RUB 167.8 billion (according to Russian Accounting Standards, ranking it 23rd in the Interfax—100 ranking of Russian banks for 3Q 2010).

The combined Nomos and BKM group will have over 300 outlets, with consolidated assets exceeding RUB 448.9 billion and more than 9,000 employees. The combined client base of the national universal banking group will include over 16,600 corporate clients, more than 36,000 SME clients and a national retail client base approaching 1.2 million. BKM adds approximately 820,000 retail clients to the consolidated banks’ client base.

Commenting on the transaction, Nomos President Dmitri Sokolov said:
"Our acquisition of a majority interest in Bank Khanty-Mansiysk is consistent with our strategy of consolidating banks with strong market shares in regions where we have identified high potential demand for our products and services, demonstrated previously by the acquisition of Nomos-Regionbank (Khabarovsk, 2005) and Nomos-Bank-Sibir (Novosibirsk, 2009). The main difference in this latest transaction is its scale — Bank Khanty-Mansiysk is not just one of the biggest regional banks, but it also competes with several national banks. This investment in BKM, which has a well-regarded regional retail franchise with 820,000 customers, underlines our determination to make Nomos one of the major consolidating forces in the attractive and fast-developing Russian banking market".

Both Nomos and BKM will continue to operate under their own brands following the completion of the transaction. Nomos believes that the acquisition of a controlling shareholding in BKM will enable the Bank to realise significant revenue and cost synergies, in particular thanks to attractive opportunities to cross-sell the Bank’s products to a significantly larger corporate and retail customer base and to optimise the cost base of the banks.

Nomos announced its plans for the acquisition of a majority stake in BKM in autumn 2010. In November of this year, Nomos acquired a share in the capital of BKM by purchasing 100% of ICT-Capital, owner of a 19.98% shareholding in BKM. A further stake of 31.31% in BKM was bought by Nomos.

Nomos is a universal retail bank with outlets in all major cities in Russia. Nomos is placed among the top 15 Russian banks in terms of asset size and is one of the country’s fast-growing banks. The Bank offers a full range of services for its corporate, small business and retail clients. Nomos is also a leading player in the investment and private banking markets. According to the official audited First Half 2010 IFRS Report, Nomos’ total assets were RUB 279.25 billion. The shareholder equity increased to RUB 36.6 billion and net profit for the first half 2010 was RUB 3.71 billion.