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Ukrsotsbank's Borys Tymonkin talks to Liz Salecka about the bank's dramatic transformation in recent years and how Banca Intesa's recent acquisition of a majority shareholding in the Ukrainian bank will ensure it has the capital it needs to grow
Ukrsotsbank has come a long way since its registration as a Ukrainian bank in September 1990 to its recent acquisition by Italy's Banca Intesa at a 5:3 price to book ratio.
Ukraine's fourth-largest bank has recorded growth in assets of nearly UAH10 billion (E1.5 billion) - from around UAH2 billion in February 2002 to UAH11.8 billion in April 2006 - and it is projecting assets of UAH55 billion by 2010. Moreover, its earnings of UAH54 million in the first quarter of 2006 were higher than those achieved for the 11 months ending 1 December 2003 (UAH52.42 million).
According to Borys Tymonkin, chairman of the board at Ukrsotsbank, the year 2000 was a major turning point for the bank, the Soviet roots of which lie in the provision of business banking services to profitable sectors such as catering and light industry.
On becoming a registered Ukrainian bank, Ukrsotsbank built up a diverse shareholder base of about 12,000 individuals and companies, but this changed when a group of companies acquired a controlling stake in the bank at the turn of the century. The new ownership structure led to a shake-out of the existing management team and a major reorganisation of the bank, aimed at streamlining its business processes and improving efficiency.
Tymonkin, who at that stage was deputy general manager at National Bank of Ukraine, says: "Top management from the leading commercial banks were then brought in and they created a very energetic team who were charged with completely changing the structure of the bank."
Radical transformation
Tymonkin explains that prior to 2000, Ukrsotsbank was running about 30 different computer systems across its organisation. All of the bank's branches had their own systems and worked as relatively autonomous units, making their own decisions and dealing with their own individual counterparties at head office....