Alpha-bank wants to buy another bank in Belarus

• 6.09.2012, 10:29

Alfa Bank plans to double the amount of loans issued to Belarusian businesses and individuals.

Pyotr Aven, chairman of the eponymous Russian parent bank of the financial institution, said about it at a meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich in Minsk on September 5.

Belarus' Alfa Bank plans to issue roughly $600 million in loans this year, Mr. Aven said.

"We want to develop fast and are seeing opportunities for that. We are considering acquiring another bank in Belarus," he revealed.

The assets of Belarus' Alfa Bank have soared 11 times since its acquisition by the Russian investor four years ago.

Mr. Aven said that he was visiting Belarus to determine a strategy of the bank's further activity. "It's important to understand how much intensively we should be developing here," he said.

Mr. Myasnikovich expressed a high opinion of the bank's performance in Belarus. "The bank is developing at a good pace. And Belarus is also helping as there are major enterprises with a stable performance among the bank's clients," he said.

Mizhhandalbank was renamed Alfa Bank after the Russian bank bought an 88-percent stake in the financial institution in 2008.