Moscow. 5’th of July. INTERFAX.RU – Funds from the National Welfare Fund (NWF) in the amount of 50 billion rubles in June were used to buy preferred shares of Gazprombank (GPB), follows from materials on the website of the Russian Ministry of Finance.
For example, 50 million GPB preferred shares were purchased at the expense of the National Welfare Fund at a price equal to the nominal value of one share – 1,000 rubles.
The fact that Gazprombank will receive 50 billion rubles in capital from the NWF was announced in April 2022 by Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
In the spring of 2022, a law was adopted allowing the Ministry of Finance, on the basis of separate government decisions, to purchase preferred shares of credit institutions at the expense of the NWF. For this, it will not be necessary to obtain the preliminary and subsequent consent of the Central Bank and the FAS. In addition, these transactions will not be subject to the need to disclose information about material facts, the need to involve the authorized executive body to determine the placement price of shares.
The government has already used the funds of the National Welfare Fund to increase the capital of banks during the crisis of 2008-2009, issuing them subords through VEB for 404 billion rubles. In 2014, after the introduction of sectoral sanctions by Western countries, state-owned banks converted these subords into prefs. Thus, VTB received 214 billion rubles in Tier 1 capital, Gazprombank – 39.95 billion rubles, RSHB – 25 billion rubles.