Shareholders of Sberbank pressed the lender on Friday to clarify ties with its biggest borrowers, after a corporate rights crusader attacked management for backing indebted aluminum giant United Company RusAl's share float.
Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of state-run public companies, has questioned Sberbank's agreement to refinance $2.25 billion of RusAl debt.
"There was a heated debate in the committee of Sberbank's minority shareholders, and we reached a compromise. We asked the bank's management board to provide information on major borrowers, risk management and collateral for loans," said Navalny, a committee member. The committee sent its request in a letter to the bank's management board.
Sberbank chief financial officer Anton Karamzin said in an e-mailed comment that the bank would study the request, but declined further comment.
Sberbank's debt agreement removed a major stumbling block for RusAl to go public, although regulators in Hong Kong banned retail investors from taking part, citing the firm's heavy debt and legal risks. RusAl, controlled by Oleg Deripaska, raised $2.2 billion in the Hong Kong share float to repay some of its $14.9 billion debt and is currently trading 12 percent below its IPO price.
Navalny said he was not fully satisfied with the letter, because the wording became overly general during the debate instead of being focused purely on RusAl. He said he would pursue more information and initiate more debate.
The committee's head, Anton Danilov-Danilyan, said most members disagreed with Navalny that Sberbank's backing of the IPO was detrimental.
"We didn't want to hard-pedal RusAl as a separate issue. … Apart from Navalny, who initiated the discussion, all people have concluded that the IPO was positive for the bank as the company received money and the bank's risks have fallen," he said.