LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing HSBC Holdings plc (HSBC) to sell its business to Expobank, paving the way for the London-based bank's full exit from the country.
In June 2022, HSBC was in talks with Expobank, owned by Russian businessman Igor Kim, to sell its Russian unit. However, the discussions faltered when Putin reinforced the laws for foreign entities in August 2022, controlling their exit from Russia's energy and banking sectors.
The British lender stated in September that it would halt commercial payments by business customers to and from Russia and Belarus, as the sanctions were making it difficult to operate there, Reuters reports.
Previously, HSBC had exited its retail banking business in Russia and later stopped accepting new customers after the invasion of Ukraine.
The bank had made a loss of $300 million on the expected sale of the business of its Russian unit last year as Moscow charges discounts of at least 50 percent on foreign asset sales.
Moscow's crackdown on entities from unfriendly states has forced many businesses to plan their exit from Russia. However, only one transaction pertaining sale of Bank Intesa AO, the Russian subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo, to an unnamed buyer was permitted by Putin last year, whereas other international firms such as Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International AG and Italy's UniCredit SpA are still struggling to exit the country.
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