Putin grants approval for UniCredit Russia unit's reorganisation and sale (updated)

Raiffeisen Bank International AG

05/10/2026 17:16

Adds details in paragraphs 7-11
MOSCOW, Oct 5 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin has approved the reorganisation of the Russian subsidiary of Italy's UniCredit CRDI.MI and the subsequent sale of the newly created unit, according to a decree published on the Russian government's website on Monday. 
The reorganisation and sale required presidential approval under Russia's restrictions on deals involving assets owned by investors from countries deemed "unfriendly" by Moscow.
UniCredit had long been one of the largest Western banks in Russia, along with Austria's Raiffeisen RBIV.VI and Hungary's OTP OTPB.BU, maintaining operations following the invasion of Ukraine despite pressure from European regulators to exit.
The bank said in May it had struck a non-binding deal to sell parts of its Russian bank to a "well-established private investor" in the United Arab Emirates, retaining only its payments business in Russia.
It said it would split its Russian business in two and keep full ownership of the payments arm, with the unidentified UAE buyer acquiring the rest. It did not disclose the deal value.
UniCredit said at the time that it expected to close the deal in the first half of 2027, subject to securing relevant authorisations.
A representative for UniCredit had no immediate comment.
Intesa Sanpaolo ISP.MI, another Italian bank active in Russia though only with a corporate business, secured in September 2023 a similar presidential decree, but it is yet to cut ties with Russia. UniCredit's Russian unit serves both retail and corporate clients.
Russia's central bank must green light any exits, which are closely scrutinised also by Western authorities given international sanctions.
In July, the EU approved a narrow sanctions exemption allowing UniCredit to complete a long-delayed transaction involving UniCredit's former Ukrainian unit and Russian businessmen Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven.
Since then, Fridman and another Russian billionaire, Alisher Usmanov, have dropped off the EU's Russian sanctions list.

 (Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy
Writing by Maxim Rodionov and Gleb Bryanski
Editing by Peter Graff and Deepa Babington)
 ((maxim.rodionov@thomsonreuters.com;))