TASHKENT

Russia’s Sovcombank has won a public tender to buy 100 percent state shares of the UzAgroExportBank for $4 million, Uzbekistan’s State Assets Management Agency (UzSAMA) said.

Sovcombank was selected as the winner taking into account the compliance of the proposal and the recommendations of the privatisation consultant, as well as taking into account the price proposed, UzSAMA said adding that legally binding documents on the transaction were signed.

The international company Grant Thornton was engaged as a privatisation consultant, while the assessment was made by the KPMG.

“It was taken into account that among the proposals received, Sovcombank meets the requirements as a candidate directly involved in banking, able to bring not only foreign investment into the country, but also the experience of a foreign bank, modern financial products and services,” UzSAMA said.

Sovcombank, one of the ten largest banks in Russia, said in a separate statement that it had been successfully cooperating with the largest enterprises in Uzbekistan for several years.

“We believe that the presence of (our) bank in Uzbekistan will allow us to become closer to existing and new customers, and will provide an opportunity to serve them even better, tracking and taking into account their needs directly in Uzbekistan,” Sergey Khotimsky, the bank’s first deputy chairman, said.

According to UzSAMA, the assets of UzAgroExportBank exceeded 69 billion soums by the end of 2021.

Uzbekistan announced the sale of UzAgroExportBank through an open process in May last year.

The Central Asian country is making efforts to improve its investment climate after more than two decades of economic isolation. The closed, autarkic system viewed most foreign investments as a threat. That ended when Islam Karimov, who had led Uzbekistan since before the Soviet breakup, died in 2016.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who was once a prime minister under Karimov and then succeeded him, has made attracting foreign investors one of his top priorities in an increasingly ambitious plan to open Uzbekistan to the outside world.

UzAgroExportBank was established in 2017 to provide financial support to local export firms, to ensure effective and sustainable development of the export potential of fruit and vegetable products, to further create favourable conditions for producers of agro-industrial products.