Media: Alfa-Bank Prepares to Buy Monobank to Take Control of Ukraine's Loan Market

Another goal is to catch up with and overtake PrivatBank.

A very large banking merger may take place in Ukraine soon: Alfa-Bank may buy Monobank. There are no official statements yet, but sources in banking circles told «Strana» that the deal is at its final stage. 

Alfa-Bank is not talking about the purchase so far, while Monobank's general manager Rafal Yushchak said: «I'm hearing about this for the first time». 

According to National Bank of Ukraine data as of January 1, 2021, Alfa-Bank is owned through the European company ABH Holdings S.A. by five businessmen who hold Russian and other citizenships, as well as two organizations:

• Mikhail Fridman (Israel, Russia, UK) — 32.86% of shares
• German Khan (Israel, Russia, UK) — 20.97% of shares
• Alexei Kuzmichev (Russia, Cyprus, St Kitts and Nevis, UK) — 16.3% of shares
• Petr Aven (Russia, Latvia) — 12.4% of shares
• UniCredit S.p.A. (Italy) — 9.9% of shares
• The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research (cancer cell research) — 3.87% of shares
• Andrei Kosogov (Russia) — 3.67% of shares

Universalbank, on the basis of which the Monobank project was developed, belongs to one person: Sergei Tigipko. The founders of Monobank were former PrivatBank employees: Dmytro Dubilet with his father Oleksandr Dubilet, Oleg Gorokhovsky, Mikhail Rogalsky, Vadim Kovalev, Vladimir Yatsenko and Lyudmila Shmalchenko.

Today Universalbank is among the top five most profitable banks in Ukraine. In January–May 2021 it earned a profit of UAH 1.4 billion and overtook Alfa-Bank (UAH 1.3 billion). 

Sources told Strana that the sale of Universalbank may have a single goal: Monobank would be acquired together with its team. Alfa-Bank is interested in the customer base and in serving the public with IT technologies. This is a loan portfolio of UAH 19 billion. 

Today Monobank is the main competitor of Alfa-Bank in retail banking, if we do not count the state-owned PrivatBank. 

In addition, Alfa-Bank is also interested in Monobank in order to catch up with and overtake the state-owned PrivatBank. 

It is not yet known how much Alfa-Bank will pay for Universalbank. There are several versions: according to some estimates, Universal will be bought for twice its authorized capital, which is UAH 7.4 billion ($274.3 million), while others put it at even UAH 9.3–11 billion ($343–411 million). 

If calculated from profit (which by the end of the year may reach up to UAH 4 billion, or about $150 million), the purchase price could range from $450 million to $1 billion.