Friedman and Aven are trying to sell their stake in Alfa-Bank, but Cyprus does not agree

Luxembourg-based ABH Holdings S.A., which indirectly owns Russian Alfa-Bank through the Cypriot company ABH Financial Limited (ABHF), said it has not yet received approval from the Cypriot regulator to change the bank's owners and has also appealed to the European Commission.

Source. This was reported by Reuters.

In March 2023, Alfa-Bank confirmed the preparation of a deal to sell the shares of Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven to another beneficiary, Andrey Kosogov.

The directors of ABH Holdings S.A. believe that it is no longer possible to do business in Russia and Europe simultaneously, the holding said in a statement.

"In order to divest its Russian assets, ABHF has informed us that an agreement was signed on February 16, 2023, under which Alfa-Bank Russia will be sold on an arm's length basis. The agreement contains a number of conditions precedent, including the receipt of the approval of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Cyprus. Until this and all other conditions are met, the sale cannot be finalized," the holding said.

Seven months have passed since the official application was submitted, but the approval is still pending, and the status of the application remains unclear due to the lack of an official response from the Cypriot authorities.

"Despite ABHF's good faith attempts to cooperate, unfortunately, the process of formalizing the agreement has not yet progressed, as no decision or even clear instructions have been provided. In this regard, we appealed not only to the Cypriot regulator, but also to the EU leadership in August 2023, but we have not yet received a response," the holding noted.

"The result is an extremely controversial situation: on the one hand, the EU expects European businesses to withdraw from Russian assets, and on the other hand, EU regulators do not give permission to withdraw," the holding noted.

According to the Financial Times, Friedman and Aven own about 45% of the bank through a Luxembourg holding company, and their longtime partner Kosogov agreed to buy out Friedman and Aven's shares, which were subject to EU and UK sanctions, for $2.3 billion.