European debt crisis can turn into new opportunities for Russian banks, analysts say FC "Uralsib". Major lending institutions are faced with problems of the region and significantly cheaper, and therefore may be subject to absorption, experts say.
Fears of a European sovereign debt with the potential to further deterioration of banks in the region, coupled with the tightening of bank capital requirements (Basle-III) caused a sharp drop in market values of European banks. For example, to date, market capitalization decreased to 5.7 Raiffeisenbank billion euros - almost 35% compared to about two months ago.
"Many European banks active in Central and Eastern Europe, not too strongly affected by the current turmoil, and because some of them need to raise capital, we expect to strengthen the process of mergers and acquisitions, including with the participation of the Savings Bank, recently bought the Austrian Volksbank and looking into a new, cost-effective as possible sites of absorption in the CEE countries ", - experts believe.
According to analysts, "Uralsib" Savings are of interest for four European
state public records credit institutions, widely represented in Central and Eastern Europe: KBC (Belgium), Raiffeisenbank (Austria), Societe Generale (France) and UniCredit Group (Italy). These banks have suffered serious losses in the medium term plan to get rid of some assets.
At the same time, experts note that the above financial institutions are the largest banks in Europe, with a long history and established ties in their countries. Recently, the European authorities have expressed concern that major national banks may be subject to absorption. "However, in our opinion, the Savings Bank could purchase units of European banks in CEE or minority stakes in parent banks themselves", - analysts say.
