Recent rumors have it that there may have occurred some changes in the way UIC Bank’s shares are owned since some of the stockholders are reported to have sold their holdings to a large external investor. The names of the possible purchaser and of the sellers haven’t been revealed yet. The bank was reluctant to answer UrBC’s official query. ‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you much about the changes in the company at the moment; our Board has not come up with any announcements yet,’ UIC Bank’s Marketing, Advertising and PR Director Natalia Savinova said to UrBC.

Ms Savinova suggested that chairman of the bank’s supervisory board Alexei Bagaryakov be questioned, yet Mr. Bagaryakov is out of town now and therefore not available for comments.

Founded in 1990, Ural Innovational Commercial Bank Ltd. was originally known as Promstroybank’s district division. Sixteen years later, its equity capital reached 79.033 million RUR and the volume of loans came to 64.317 million.

Such large-scale acquisitions have taken place before: as recently and in April 2007, GRAN Bank announced it could be taken over by a larger player, Kaliningrad-based Investbank. GRAN Bank’s Board of Directors suggested that the shareholders approve of the proposal in the course of the upcoming AGM. Earlier on, 99% of the bank’s shares had been sold to Moscow-based Converse Group. In addition, VUZ Bank was bought by Probusinessbank of Moscow, Uralpromstroybank was acquired by Promstroybank of Saint Petersburg, Uralsibsotsbank was taken over by MDM Group.

'It would come as no surprise if Mr. Bagaryakov really turns out to have sold his share holding to someone. He has been living in Moscow for quite a while now and does some other business (including construction),’ says Konstantin Selyanin, Director of Accord Invest Investment Company.