The government plans to sell Sense Bank and Ukrgasbank

Ukraine is preparing for the sale of two important banks – Sense Bank and Ukrgasbank. To achieve this, it is planned to appoint an internationally recognized financial advisor by September 2024

“We are also preparing for sale two systemic state banks - Sense Bank and Ukrgasbank. We plan to appoint an internationally recognized financial advisor by the end of September 2024 through a transparent procedure and after consultation with international financial institutions,” the memorandum says.

According to the message, the appointment of the adviser will take place according to a transparent procedure and after consultations with international financial organizations.

In addition, Ukraine is preparing for consideration a bill on the privatization of state-owned banks in consultation with international financial organizations. The bill will be submitted to parliament before the end of September 2024.

One of the chapters of the memorandum states that Ukraine also undertakes not to increase the state share in the banking sector. All decisions on this issue will be consistent with the strategy of reducing state ownership in the banking sector.

“Our decisions will be consistent with the overall strategy to reduce state ownership in the banking sector. Any decision that may result in increased government ownership of the banking sector will be made in consultation with IMF staff and will be strictly limited to issues related to the preservation of financial stability and national security decisions during the period of martial law,” the memorandum states.

Nationalization of Sense Bank

In February 2022, the European Union imposed sanctions against the co-owner of Alfa Bank of Ukraine Mikhail Fridman, and in March the UK joined them.

At the same time, Friedman and his partner Petr Aven left the board of directors of Alfa-Bank, which later changed its name to Sense Bank in Ukraine. Ukraine imposed sanctions against Friedman in October of that year.

And in May 2023, the Verkhovna Rada supported a bill allowing the NBU to nationalize banks of sanctioned owners. On July 20, the National Bank of Ukraine decided to withdraw Sense Bank from the market. Later, the financial institution became the property of the state.

On July 22, 2023, the Ministry of Finance and the Deposit Guarantee Fund announced the successful conclusion of a purchase and sale agreement, under which the state became the owner of 100% of the shares of Sense Bank JSC.

According to the NBU, as of April 1, 2024, in terms of total assets, Sense Bank ranked 8th (UAH 136.63 billion) among 63 banks operating in the country. The bank was among the top three in terms of net profit for 2023: it amounted to UAH 5.04 billion.