Commerzbank buys out Yurushev’s Forum holdings?

Bank Forum’s (UX: FORM UK) Leonid Yurushev will likely sell his 26% stake to Commerzbank, increasing the latter’s holdings to ~90%, newspaper Delo reported this morning. The news has not yet been officially confirmed by any of the parties, but Bank Forum did confirm negotiations between shareholders were taking place. Forum has scheduled an EGM for March 4 to attempt to pass a 45% charter fund increase, which has been tabled at three consecutive shareholder meetings due to a lack of agreement between Commerzbank and Yurushev. The increase would put Forum in line with the National Bank of Ukraine’s requirement following stress-tests to increase its regulatory capital by at least 23%. Mykyta Mykhaylychenko: Bank Forum shares have made ~37% YTD (vs. the UX’s 16%), while its average daily turnover was UAH 1.3 mln vs. spikes of some UAH 0.6 mln before the three previous EGMs in 4Q09. We believe this indicates the market perceives approval of Forum’s share capital increase at the March 4 EGM as a done deal on speculation about a shareholder agreement. Although we foresee increased volatility in Forum shares in coming weeks, we expect the approval of the charter fund on March 4 to trigger the price quickly to UAH 9.5 (USD 1.2) per share.