The Energy of Success: New Horizons, 2007-2008

 

In 2007, VTB became the first Russian bank to launch its initial public offering, the largest international bank IPO at the moment. In total, the Bank raised USD 8 billion, with demand for GDRs nine times higher than supply at The London Stock Exchange. Almost all leading US and European investment funds showed interest to it, and more than 120 thousand Russian citizens became VTB shareholders.

For the first time in the Bank’s history, numerous institutional and minority investors became its shareholders. The funds raised from the IPO allowed VTB to join the world’s top 100 banks in terms of capital. It laid a solid foundation for an accelerated growth of VTB’s business and for consolidation of leadership in the Russian and international banking market.

Once VTB was turned into a public company, it became more transparent. Independent directors were attracted to manage the Bank, the Audit Committee was created under VTB Supervisory Council, and the Investor Relations Division was established in the Bank. In 2007, Standard & Poor’s acknowledged VTB as one of the most transparent Russian banks.

While implementing its investment business development strategy, the Bank launched:

• the creation of an investment business unit within VTB Group;
• the establishment of direct and venture investment funds in Russia.

 

In particular, together with Russian Venture Company and EBRD, the Bank became a co-founder of the first venture fund in Russia created to finance Russian innovation companies.

VTB consistently expands its presence in the CIS markets by:

• acquiring the controlling interest in Slavneftebank (Belarus);
• completing capitalization of its subsidiary banks in Ukraine and Armenia;
• opening representative offices in Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic.

At the same time, VTB continued to consolidate its Western Europe subsidiaries.

VTB was the first Russian bank to obtain a license to carry out banking activities in India and China and to open its branches in these two countries. Besides, taking an active part in developing trade and economic relations between Russia and China, the Bank started servicing bank cards of UnionPay, Chinese national processing company.

 

In October 2007, despite the global liquidity crisis, VTB successfully placed a USD 2 billion Eurobond loan, unprecedented for Russian banks.

VTB’s high efficiency was confirmed by Global Finance naming it the best commercial bank in Russia in 2007, and by Fitch rating agency declaring it the leader in corporate lending.

In the near future, VTB intends to follow its development strategy, not only gaining further foothold in all major segments of the Russian banking market but also becoming the first and only financial and banking institution to provide services throughout the whole post-Soviet space. By the end of 2010, over 1500 VTB offices will offer a full range of financial services to its customers in more than 20 countries.

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