Foreign banks aren't involved in leading Russian privatisation, may get secondary roles

By Oksana Kobzeva

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Foreign banks are not involved in leading the privatisation of oil firm Bashneft (BANE.MM) and diamond miner Alrosa (ALRS.MM), a Sberbank executive said on Tuesday, but banking sources said they may get secondary roles when the final decision is taken.

Maxim Poletayev, first deputy chairman of Sberbank's board, said he hoped Sberbank CIB would be the global coordinator for the Bashneft privatisation. He said Russia's VTB Capital would probably be the global coordinator for the Alrosa stake sale.

Last night the economy ministry said it had chosen VTB Capital to arrange the privatisation of Bashneft, Sberbank CIB for Alrosa and Renaissance Broker for the privatisation of VTB, Russia's No.2 bank.

The Russian government is yet to take a final decision on the banks involved in privatisation, but it will take the ministry's proposals into account. A senior Western banker told Reuters foreign banks may be added when the government decides.

The economy ministry had earlier sent a request for proposals to Russian and foreign banks for advisory roles in the sales of a 50.08 percent stake in Bashneft and 10.9 percent stakes in both Alrosa and VTB.

Sources told Reuters last week that Swiss banks UBS (UBSG.S) and Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) had been interested in advising on the deals as long as they did not violate sanctions.

One of the sources said Italy's UniCredit (CRDI.MI) had also been interested. Yet sources said foreign banks were unlikely to lead privatisation deals and would be potentially left only with secondary roles.

Most Western investment banks with Russian operations have been reluctant to advise Moscow on the privatisations as they are worried about possibly violating sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine conflict.

(Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva, additional reporting by Katya Golubkova and Olga Popova; Writing by Alexander Winning and Lidia Kelly, editing by Jason Bush)