VTB completed buy back for 11 bln roubles

Russia’s second larges bank VTB spent 11.4 billion roubles for a buy back about 83.3 billion shares from small shareholders.

About 74,000 shareholders who lost money after VTB went public in 2008 took part in the share buyback program, which started in March. VTB plans to have reimbursed its former shareholders by April, 30.Under the agreement VTB bought shares for the IPO price – almost twice of the current value. Nevertheless the bank spent much less than it initially planned as many shareholders with smaller stakes just didn't file an application for the buy back.The head of VTB 24 Mikhail Zadornov had forecast the bank would spend up to 13 billion roubles on the buy back with 95, 000 shareholders participating. More than a 100,000 people participated in VTB's IPO in 2007 which was highly promoted by the state. They bought the banks shares for more than a billion dollars.. The shares were listed at just 0.13 Roubles each, and dropped to 0.03 rouble during the crisis. Now the shares are up to 0.07 rouble.The buy back program was promoted by PM Vladimir Putin during the election campaign. Experts say this buy back would challenge the development of Russian financial markets as it was absolutely a non market decision – conducted during the Presidential pre-election campaign.Meanwhile the buy back didn’t affect the bank’s finance as much as some analysts expected. VTB reported 8.7 billion rouble in revenue in the first quarter. The loan portfolio grew by 35 billion roubles up to 744 billion. The bank also managed to attract almost 64 billion rouble in the first quarter.