Spectacular transaction on the Vienna Stock Exchange with geopolitical dimensions: Raiffeisen Bank International wants to buy Oleg Deripaska’s 27.8 percent share in Austria’s largest construction group, Strabag. The RBI announced this on Tuesday evening.
The 28.5 million shares are not to be taken over directly by the Russian oligarch, who is sanctioned because of the Ukraine war, but by another company. A few hours before the announcement, it was announced that Deripaska wanted to transfer his Strabag share to the Russian joint stock company Iliadis JSC.
According to RBI, the purchase price should be 1.5 billion euros. The buyer is said to be RBI’s Russian subsidiary. The plan is that it will transfer the Strabag shares to RBI as a dividend in kind.
All of this is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2024, subject to official approvals and the fulfillment of other conditions precedent, the RBI said.
According to OÖN information, the transaction is also a way for Raiffeisen Bank International to bring equity or profits from Russia to Austria – in the form of the Strabag participation. As reported, the profits of the Russian subsidiary cannot be distributed to the parent company due to sanctions.
On Tuesday it was also announced that Strabag will have a supervisory board chairman, Kerstin Gelbmann, at the turn of the year. She succeeds former Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, who resigned from the chairmanship and mandate. He was prompted to take this step “by the public discussion regarding individual Signa companies that had gotten into trouble, of which I am the chairman of the supervisory board.” Gusenbauer said he wanted to avoid “any reputational shadow” falling on Strabag. He also cited health reasons.
Author
Alexander Zens
Economics editor
Alexander Zens
