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VTB Has No Plans to Sell EADS Stake

VTB Group, the country's second-biggest bank, does not plan to sell or add to its 5 percent stake in European Aeronautic, Defense & Space, Europe's largest aerospace company.

"At the moment, we have no plans either to sell or to increase our share,'' CEO Andrei Kostin said Thursday in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"One has to see whether there is a better prospect for shares to grow or not. We'll view it as a portfolio investor very thoroughly."

The bank bought the EADS shares in August of last year for about 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) at a time when surging oil and commodities prices were underpinning Russia's eight-year economic boom. President Vladimir Putin, who consolidated the country's energy resources under state control, is combining the country's aviation companies to compete with EADS and Boeing.

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