"This is no longer just a plan, the process is over," said Vladimir Potanin, president of the Interros holding, which owns Rosbank, metals giant Norilsk Nickel, oil producer Sidanko and the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Before the crisis, Uneximbank was one of the nation?€™s leading private banks and the center of oligarch Potanin?€™s empire.
As of Sept. 1, the shareholder?€™s equity of Rosbank came to 4.9 billion rubles ($176.7 million).
The financial crash of 1998 left Uneximbank with more than $2 billion in debt, $800 million of that to foreign creditors. Uneximbank reached a settlement with creditors in July that included a cash down payment of $105 million, or 10 cents on every dollar owed.
After the crisis, all of Uneximbank?€™s viable activities were transferred to Rosbank, a move that was validated by making a legal merger one of the key components of the debt-restructuring proposal.
At the time, the transfer was criticized and perceived as asset stripping and a way to leave creditors high and dry.
The market value of the entire settlement, which also includes Eurobonds, is now calculated to be 34 cents to the dollar, or 70 percent more than what the original deal was worth.
Potanin said the creation of the new financial entity, which will continue to be called Rosbank, is the first post-crisis restructuring of a bank. This accomplishment justifies Interros?€™ "moral and psychological right to operate in the banking industry," he added
But not everyone agrees.
"I would take anything they say with a big chunk of salt because they were saying all the same things two years ago," said Kim Iskyan, banking analyst at investment bank Renaissance Capital.
Even though the management hasn?€™t changed ?€” Mikhail Prokhorov, former president of Uneximbank, is a member of the board of directors of Rosbank ?€” foreign investors will probably come flocking back, Iskyan said.
"The frightening fact is that people have a short memory," he said.
Yevgeny Ivanov, chairman of Rosbank?€™s board, admitted Monday that Rosbank had taken a couple of steps backward in their relationship with foreign investors during the debt-restructuring process.
He insisted the bank management intends to take certain measures to reinstate trust with investors. The bank?€™s financial records will be made more accessible to the public, and the hiring of an international auditor is in the works, he added.
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