Raiffeisen: BNP Sells Russian Unit - Magnitude, Value Different, Worth Watching

Raiffeisen: a different scale but BNP appears to have successfully sold a Russian business, acc to BBG. Not a spread mover for RBI but a situation worth monitoring. (RBI AV)

• "BNP Paribas Cardif Sold Russian Unit to Domestic Investors: IFX” which highlights an ownership database entry from 4-Apr showing SK Cardif, the local unit, having ownership transferred to “7 individuals”.
• Cardif is one of BNP’s insurance subsidiaries and the Russian arm is very small, so this is clearly a totally different order of magnitude. Further, there appears to be no transfer of value to BNP which stopped operations in Russia in Mar-22.
• RBI makes around 50% of profits from Russia and Belarus and its deal does involve a transfer of value to RBI (in the form of shares in Strabag) and it’s this last part which is, we feel, the key sticking point from a sanctions perspective.