Italian insurer, Assicurazioni Generali, is seeking to acquire a stake in Russia’s VTB Group for about $300 million, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Russian state is offloading a 10% stake in the bank worth nearly $3.5 billion in February 2011 to privatize its state-controlled assets to close its budget gap.
VTB and the Russian government had previously considered selling the stake to a small group of investors led by sovereign wealth funds and TPG. The private equity firm is now seeking to buy only $100 million worth of shares in the offer. Generali already offers insurance and a pension fund in Russia through its partnership with the Czech Republic’s PPF Group in Eastern Europe.
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