IKEA exits banking business in Russia

According to Kommersant, referring to market participants close to CEB, the parties have submitted documents for approval of the transaction to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. They suggest that the closure will occur before the end of July.

It should be noted that Fiba group (which includes KEB) and Ikano have been partners for ten years. Ikano Bank, established in 2013, is controlled by Ikano S.A. (part of Ikano group) and Credit Europe Bank NV (Holland) in shares of 50% respectively. The bank was created to lend to buyers of IKEA and MEGA stores and ranked 208th in terms of assets (4.8 billion rubles), 237th in terms of equity (664 million rubles). The credit institution turned out to be unprofitable according to the results of the past year - 327.9 million rubles of loss. CEB at the end of 2021 turned out to be profitable - 962 million rubles of profit.

As noted by other buyers who applied for banks, buying a “good license at such a price” is an opportunity “just to earn at a discount and acquire a base for building a business in the POS lending market.” At the same time, experts do not consider Ikano-Bank a successful project, it is small, the portfolio is about 3 billion rubles, and it specializes in loans to citizens.