After months of negotiations, Vienna-based Raiffeisen International (RI) has signed a landmark purchase agreement to acquire a 93.5% stake in Ukraine’s second largest bank, Bank Aval.
The deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval in Ukraine and Austria, adds significantly to RI’s existing banking assets in Ukraine and reflects its pioneering style in central and eastern Europe.

Ukraine and Russia will be in the EU within the next 15 years, argue Peter Schwartz and Chris Coldewey, with Ukraine in pole position.

Competition for Ukraine’s expanding telecoms market is fuelling disharmony between some of the leading players, as Ben Aris reports.

Heightened activity on Ukraine’s bond market is a clear reflection of companies’ faith in the country’s economic future. Ben Aris reports.

Since Viktor Yushchenko was elected president, a gold rush has begun in banking as foreign institutions begin to move in. Ben Aris reports from Kiev.

Austria’s Raiffeisen International (RZB) is in exclusive takeover talks with Ukraine’s second-largest commercial bank, Aval. “We are in talks that we have agreed will be mutual until May,” said the chief executive of Raiffeisen International, Herbert Stepic. “We want to take over the bank entirely.”

Ben Aris reports from Kiev on the benefits that the new eastern bloc CES alliance is expected to bring and on the country’s growing relationship with the EU.
The leaders of the four biggest countries in eastern Europe gathered in the Crimean resort of Yalta in May to create their answer to the EU: the Common Economic Space (CES). The new free trade zone is designed to feed flourishing economic growth in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

Ben Aris reports from Kiev on the shape of the banking sector and banks’ strategies to build up universal business now that the economy is faring well.

Serhiy Tihipko, chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, talks to Ben Aris in Kiev about economic progress and developments in the banking sector.

The Ukranian economy is undercapitalised and companies are placing a steady stream of corporate bond issues to raise investment, says Ben Aris in Kiev.