The month of
February saw Lithuania Republic of Lithuania
Regular readers of
this column will have seen
that on 5 November 2012 Ūkio Bankas stunned investors when it announced that it
had spent 357 mln LTL (€ 103.4 mln) to buy out a struggling stadium-development
firm, the Vilnius firm UAB “Žalgirio sporto arena”, at least partly in order to
“avoid possible loan impairment losses”.
Readers will also have seen
that on 25 January the management of the bank vehemently denied press reports
that the bank was involved in money laundering, especially the purported laundering
of fraudulent Russian tax rebates connected to the “Magnitsky
case” of 2007. And in what can now
be understood in retrospect as a related development, readers here will have seen
that during 2012 the commercial bank Šiaulių Bankas (AB „Šiaulių bankas“)
reduced its loan portfolio and put this freed-up cash into available-for-sale
securities, as though it foresaw a need for considerable liquidity approaching
in the future.
Ūkio Bankas,
originally founded in 1989 as Komercinis Pramonės Bankas (Commercial Industry
Bank), is headquartered in Kaunas , Lithuania
In 2004 the holding
company Ūkio Bankas Investment Group (UAB „Ūkio banko investicinė grupė”, or
more simply “ŪBIG”) acquired a 10.3% interest in the football team Heart of
Midlothian F.C. (“Hearts”) in Edinburgh , Scotland
During 2005 ŪBIG
increased its share in “Hearts” to 29.9%.
Then in December 2005 a subsidiary of ŪBIG named “Heart of Midlothian
2005” acquired a 51.78% share of the team, boosting ŪBIG’s control of the team
to above 80%. In subsequent years financial
losses by the football club were made up by “Heart of Midlothian 2005” selling
its shares to its parent company, ŪBIG.
In November 2010 ŪBIG’s control of the football club, whether directly or
through “Heart of Midlothian 2005”, totaled 98.43%, which declined to 83.43% in
2011 when ŪBIG sold a 15% share to the firm Quantum Holding SA, headquartered
in Geneva, Switzerland, of which Romanov’s niece, Julija Gončaruk, had recently
been an officer. (Julija Gončaruk,
currently a Non-executive Director of the football club, is the daughter of Romanov’s
sister Olga Gončaruk, who has been a member of the Supervisory Council of the
bank since 2004 and as of October 2012 held 8,460,823 shares in the bank’s
stock, equal to 2.4466% of the bank’s capital.
Olga Gončaruk holds a diploma in Philology from Vilnius University
In addition to its
football holding in Scotland Kaunas
Sources:
Ūkio Bankas annual reports: Metinė
ataskaita 2002, Metinė
ataskaita 2003, Nepriklausomo
auditoriaus išvada, metinis pranešimas ir finansinė atskaitomybė už metus,
pasibaigusius 2006 m. gruodžio 31 d., Nepriklausomo
auditoriaus išvada, metinis pranešimas ir finansinė atskaitomybė už metus,
pasibaigusius 2007 m. gruodžio 31 d.
Hearts: Share
Offer 2012 (2012-10-29)
Notice of liquidation of Quantum Holding SA: La société
est dissoute par décision de l’assemblée générale du 08.03.2010.
(2010-03-10)
Acquisition of basketball team Kauno „Žalgiris“ by
ŪBIG: Romanovas
įsigijo Kauno Žalgirį (2009-05-05 21:01 )
[To be completed in the near future.]
Mark Pleas
[contact]
