Leading Russian commercial bank Alfa-Bank is worth RUB343,4bn ($5.1bn), the bank said in a report filed with the government as part of a mandatory valuation of its shares in December 2018, Interfax reported on January 14. According to the bank, the market value of one of its ordinary shares as of December 13 was 5,764.15 rubles.

Rumours have been swirling on the Russian bank market that the oligarch owner of Alfa-Bank Mikhail Fridman is in talks to sell up, as bne IntelliNews reported in December.

According to bne IntelliNews sources, Fridman has been in talks with the Kremlin. The Financial Times also reported that Alfa-Bank had approached some western banks to suggest a sale. Alfa-Bank itself has denied the reports.  

Alfa-Bank said there was nothing behind the valuation assessment and that it was a routine valuation. In the quarterly reports of the bank lately there is no information on attracting appraisers.

The authorised capital of Alfa-Bank consists of 59,587,623 shares. Thus, based on the market value of one share, the entire capital of the bank can be estimated at RUB343.46bn (slightly more than $5.1bn at the current exchange rate). This is about 0.8 of the bank's own capital, which as of December 1, 2018 reached RUB431.57bn.

The shares in Alfa-Bank are held through the ABH Holdings holding and in addition to Fridman are owned by his long standing partners, German Khan, Alexey Kuzmichyov, Petr Aven, Andrey Kosogov, as well as the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and UniCredit SpA

The state-owned VTB Bank was named most often in rumours as potential buyer, but its CEO Andrei Kostin denied the reports as well in November.

Alfa-Bank in the first three quarters of 2018 was ranked the fifth largest bank in Russia by assets in a Interfax-100 ranking.