Neither
the Bank of Lithuania, nor the Government, nor financial analysts equate Ūkio
bankas and Snoras. Ūkio bankas is half of Snoras, a lot less money was gone
from it (it lacks only LTL 1.1 bln., compared with LTL 3.4 bln. in the case of
Snoras), Ūkio bankas, unlike Snoras, did not have a bank in Latvia.
Ūkio
bankas crash was predetermined by the ambitious projects of the major
shareholder Vladimir Romanov, Snoras bankruptcy - possibly criminal activity.
Experts from abroad started searching Snoras’s property, in the case of Ūkio
bankas, one Lithuanian was enough.
In Ūkio
bankas, the majority was the insured deposits. Meanwhile, Snoras bankruptcy
carried away millions. Ūkio bankas will not injure the Deposit and Investment
Insurance Fund so much - this time it will have to pay LTL 600 mln - 1 bln.,
depending on how the negotiations on the transfer of Ūkio bankas to Šiaulių
bankas will end.
However,
if not to consider how it affected people, business, economy of the country,
both banks are almost gone. So even though they acted differently, Vladimir
Antonov and Vladimir Romanov did the same thing - destroyed a bank each.
Snoras’s cancer
After the
nationalization of Snoras was announced in the evening November 16, 2011, they
held off on writing the bank’s obituary. Over the long time, as in the case of
Ūkio bankas, they talked about the division of the bank into good and bad
banks.
Then the
Board of the Bank of Lithuania met three times to resolve on the fate of
Snoras. After receiving the conclusions of the bank’s provisional administrator
Simon Frickley, the Board broke up twice not deciding what to do next.
Statements
by the then Minister of Finance Ingrida Šimonytė and head of the Bank of
Lithuania Vitas Vasiliauskas left almost no doubt that it was impossible to
save Snoras.
I.Shimonite
told MPs that Snoras was insolvent and V.Vasilyauskas said about the cancer,
which affected the bank.
Therefore,
perhaps, few were surprised when in the late evening on November 24 it turned
out that Snoras would be declared bankrupt.
Only
possible volumes of the theft were astonishing - of bank assets which reached
LTL 8 bln., LTL 3.4 bln. was gone. And although the bank's shareholders
Vladimir Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas were handcuffed the same evening in
London, it was not any comfort for anybody. Especially business, government
agencies, which kept millions in Snoras.
It is
still unclear how and where Snoras’s money has disappeared. Bankruptcy
administrator Neil Cooper told the media that only fairy godmother can help
find the property.
V.Antonov
and R.Baranauskas lured the depositors’ money by interest rate, which was
higher than the market rate. The state managed to return part of the deposits,
since Snoras had a lot of money only on paper. Part of the money is gone, part
should be returned by selling property owned by the bank. So
far
only
Snoras’s
retail
chain has been sold.
In
the
next
three
months, they are going to
sell
vehicles owned by the bank,
to
continue
selling
Finasta
and
Snoro
lizingas, to
sell
a
part
of
immovable
property.
Part of
the money flowed away to the countries with preferential tax treatment.
Currently, negotiations are continuing with the Cayman Islands funds about
redemption of units related to twenty-two Russian loans.
Vladimir Romanov’s ambitions
Ūkio
bankas money is easier to track. At least, this is what the Bank of Lithuania
thought hiring former Vice-Minister of Economy Adomas Auditskasa as a
provisional administrator. Meanwhile, in Snoras case, specialists with
international experience were involved - first Simon Frickley, then - his
colleague Neil Cooper.
Representatives
of the Bank of Lithuania state that the emergence of problems with Ūkio bankas
was mainly caused by eccentric Vladimir Romanov and his ambitious projects -
loans granted to facilities in Moscow, Scotland, unsuccessful investment in
Žalgiris stadium, as well as in other facilities.
Although
he did not participate directly in the management of the bank, Ūkio bankas
granted loans to the parties related to him. In addition, Vladimir Romanov’s sister
Olga Goncharuk, two other persons having family ties with him, Vladimir
Romanov’s wife Svetlana are at the wheel of Ūkio bankas and group companies.
It is
suspected now that to fulfill the requirements to the bank's capital, the
property pledged to the bank was reappraised. That
is, larger
loans were provided, and the
price
of
the
mortgaged
property was overstated.
For
example, part of the forest is estimated at LTL 60 mln., although its value did
not reach even LTL 1 mln.
In 2011,
Baltijos turto vertinimo agentūra appraised Žalgiris stadium at LTL 420 mln.
Perhaps the cost of the stadium was calculated taking into account the plans of
Ūkio bankas investment group to implement project worth LTL 500
mln. The project came to nothing.
At the
end of 2012, the bank Ūkio bankas had to take over Žalgirio sporto arena
controlling the stadium. The stadium area was estimated at LTL 357 mln. Many
experts were shocked with such a price.
Other names without blemish?
The fact
that Ūkio bankas encountered problems was spoken about immediately after Snoras
nationalization. However, negotiations with Vladimir Romanov lasted over a
year. There was still some hope to save the bank. Only after V.Romanov rejected
it, the Bank of Lithuania started to tackle the bank’s problems.
Despite
the fact that two distressed banks are closed, the financial institutions’
reputation is questionable.
Deputy
Chairman of the Bank of Lithuania Raimondas Kuodis said to 15min.lt that he would not lie and say that no other financial
institution goes bankrupt.
For the
moment, small players in the market - credit unions – have encountered serious
problems.
