The story
Sovcombank was registered on November 1, 1990, in the Buy town, Kostroma Oblast. It was originally known as Buykombank.
In 2002, Buykombank was acquired by Sergey Khotimsky and Mikhail and Vasily Klyukin brothers. In February 2003 the bank was renamed Sovcombank ("Modern Commercial Bank"). The head office was relocated to Kostroma.
In September 2007, the shareholder of Sovcombank became the international investment company from the Netherlands TBIC Financial Services BV (TBIF). As a result of this transaction, Sovcombank turned out to be the only owner of TBIF assets in Russia represented by the Siberian Arch Credit Network (about a thousand salespies). Under the terms of the transaction, the Kardan TBIF subsidiary received 50% of the shares in Sovcombank, making 100% of the Arch and about $65 million. Khotimsky and partners issued their shares through the Netherlands Sovco Capital Partners.
In May 2012, TBIF sold its share to other Sovkombank shareholders, having received €123 million and earned €59 million.
At the end of 2015, Pavel Fuks sold his part (21.83%) in Sovcombank, which was estimated at $80 million.
In early 2019, another additional issue was held, as a result of which the authorized capital of Sovcombank increased by ₽ 100 million to ₽ 1.97 billion. Shares were redeemed by Russian Direct Investment Fund and Ayar International Investment Company (Saudi Arabia), which were already shareholders, as well as new investors — Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding and the Russian-Japanese investment fund. In 2019, bank took part in UN initiative for responsible financial activities.
In 2020, Sovcombank started preparations for the IPO, its shareholders approved listing on the Moscow Stock Exchange. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley were chosen as the placement managers.
In the 2020 Bank of Russia included Sovcombank into a list of systemically significant banks.
Read the full text
In 2021 Sovcombank closed a deal to buy Vostochny Bank from its key shareholders - Baring Vostok Fund, Finvision Company and Sherzod Yusupov. In December 2021 Sovcombank signed a binding agreement on the purchase of an insurance division “CiV Life” from HDI International AG, affiliate of the Talanx group. The deal was previewed to be closed in the first quarter of 2022.
In February 2022 Sovcombank became the first Russian bank launching 4-days workweek.
In February 2022 Sovcombank acquired 31% of Vitabank for further use of its licence to develop payment services. Another 54% of shares of Vitabank were bought by Kirill Sokolov, Sovcombank's ex-deputy chairman of the board. The stake of "Kirov Leningradsky grain processing plant" has been subsequently decreased from 93,76% to 8,76%.
In December 2023, after repeated postponements, Sovcombank announced an IPO on the Moscow Exchange. 1 billion shares of additional issue were placed (about 5% of the capital). The placement took place at the upper limit of the price range at 11.5 rubles per share. A total of 11.5 billion rubles were raised. Trading on the Moscow Exchange began on December 15, tickers SVCB and ISIN RU000A0ZZAC4. This is the bank's first IPO in Russia since 2015 and the first IPO of a company under sanctions.
In February 2024, Sovcombank announced the upcoming purchase of Home Credit Bank. This is one of the leaders in the Russian consumer lending market with an equity capital of 53 billion rubles. The transaction is planned to be carried out in two stages: 51% in 2024 in exchange for shares of Sovcombank’s additional issue and 49% in 2024-2025 for cash.
From Wikipedia’s article on Sovcombank, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4