The request from Alfa Bank for a subordinated loan was tentatively approved by Russia’s Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs. The loan totaling totaling 29.9 billion roubles under the 1:3 financing ratio, as it was said by a source at Vnesheconombank (VEB), must be still approved by the VEB supervisory board.
Only the banks that have received 1:1 loans are eligible for the 1:3 financing. Alfa Bank received a loan for 10.2 billion roubles from VEB at an interest rate of 8% annually in January 2009, with the 1:1 ratio. In November 2008, bank’s shareholders received a subordinated loan for $320 mln. In April 2009, bank’s president and co-owner Pyotr Aven said that Alfa Bank expects to receive a subordinated loan for 20.4 billion roubles from VEB.
Alfa Bank Holding belongs to Alfa Bank Holding Financial Ltd., which is registered in the British Virgin Islands. Some of its beneficiaries are co-owners of Alfa Group Mikhail Fridman with a 36.47% stake, German Khan with 23.27% and Alexei Kuzmichev with 18.12%, and Alfa Bank president Pyotr Aven with a 13.76% stake. In the first half of 2009, Alfa Bank was Russia’s seventh largest bank by assets.