Societe Generale has increased its stake in Russian subsidiary Rosbank, which it said was part of a long-term commitment to Russia. The deal comes as Russia’s economy is under pressure partly as a result of sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe to protest against Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. Societe Generale said it bought 7% of Rosbank’s share capital from Interros group, controlled by Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin, increasing the stake to 99.4%. SocGen bought into Rosbank in 2006 and had built up an 82% stake by 2012. SocGen then bought 10% of Rosbank from Russia’s second-largest bank, state-controlled VTB in 2013, increasing the stake to more than 90%. SocGen had exposure of 22.4 billion euros to Russia at the end of June, according to the European Banking Authority’s (EBA) data. That equated to 15.7 billion euros in risk-weighted assets.
