State share in Uzagroexportbank sold for $5 million 

100% of state shares in the authorized capital of Uzagroexportbank JSCB have been privatized, the State Asset Management Agency reported. 

It is noted that a foreign enterprise “Support Level” proposed making one-time payment of $5 million for the purchase of 100% state shares in the authorized capital of Uzagroexportbank JSCB, increasing the authorized capital of the bank to an additional value of no less than 29 billion soums, and at least developing the bank’s infrastructure, technology and products, as well as investing $50 million. This proposal has been approved by the State Assets Management Agency.

As of December 1, 2022, the credit portfolio of Uzagroexportbank is 6.1 billion soums due to the suspension of “credit operations” of Uzagroexportbank since December 2019 by the international consulting company “Grant Thornton”, which was previously involved in the privatization of 100% of state share packages in the authorized capital of Uzagroexportbank JSCB. “As a result of the extremely high share of problem loans, the total loss of the bank during the same period amounted to 31 billion soums, the value of its total net assets was 50 billion soums,” the Agency said.

In addition, Uzagroexportbank has failed to comply with the economic regulations related to bank supervision by the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, insufficient reserves have been formed against possible losses on assets, the established procedures for issuing credit documents have not been fully followed. Moreover, the requirements set for the amount of authorized capital of commercial banks in accordance with the current legal documents have not been met (the authorized capital was formed less than 29 billion soums).

For information, according to the agreement concluded on February 23, 2022, Russia’s Sovkombank was supposed to buy 100% of the state's share in Uzagroexportbank for 4 million dollars.

Against the background of the invasion of Ukraine, the US government imposed sanctions on Sovkombank at the end of February. Later, similar decisions were taken by a number of other countries.

After that, Sovkombank unilaterally canceled the agreement with the State Assets Management Agency, and the process of privatization of Uzagroexportbank was stopped.