Russia's second largest bank VTB has no plans to increase its 46.48 percent stake in Bank of Moscow this year but will consolidate part of the Moscow lender's profit in its first-quarter IFRS financial statements, VTB CFO Gerbert Moos said on Wednesday.
"We'll consolidate the part of the profit which corresponds to VTB's stake in Bank of Moscow," Moos said, adding that the Moscow lender would be consolidated as an affiliated rather than a subsidiary company.
"VTB does not control Bank of Moscow and therefore we'll consolidate the portion which we hold - 46.48 percent. Correspondingly, 46 percent of their financial result will be consolidated in our accounts," he said.
A politically-tinged fight for control over Bank of Moscow started in February, when state-controlled VTB announced a gradual acquisition of the investment vehicle of the capital's former mayor Yury Luzhkov.
The Moscow government sold its stake in the bank to VTB after President Dmitry Medvedev fired Luzhkov last fall over a lack of trust.
Former Bank of Moscow president Andrei Borodin strongly opposed the acquisition of his bank. He has filed a court complaint blocking the acquisition of Goldman Sachs' 3.88% stake which would have increased VTB's stake in Bank of Moscow to a controlling interest.
In early April, Borodin said he had sold his 20.3% stake in the bank, jointly owned with his aide Lev Alaluyev, to Vitaly Yusufov, son of former Russian energy minister Igor Yusufov, but was unhappy about the price of the deal.
Last week, Bank of Moscow shareholders' meeting voted out Borodin as the bank's president.
MOSCOW, April 27 (RIA Novosti)
