OREANDA-NEWS A major deal on the purchase of the Stockmann chain of stores in Russia by Sberbank has fallen through because of Western sanctions against the bank. This is reported by "Kommersant" citing its sources, Gazeta.ru said.

The newspaper was told by Stockmann General Director Gennady Levkin and a representative of Sber that the sale agreement was canceled by mutual agreement of the parties.

At the same time, the investor circles source suggested that the deal might have been caused by Western sanctions against Sberbank.

As the newspaper notes, the agreement on the purchase of 100% share of the chain of stores by Sberbank was signed back in January of this year. Experts estimate the total business of the chain at 1-1.5 billion rubles. Despite the failure of the deal Sber claims that "Stockmann" goods will be presented at "SberMegaMarket".

Earlier, Germany and some other EU countries demanded to change the draft of the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, prepared by the European Commission.