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Dutch bank ING has agreed to sell its Russian business to a Moscow-based company, taking a €700mn hit to after-tax profits and ending its activities in the country nearly three years after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
ING said the buyer was Global Development JSC, a company owned by a Moscow-based financial investor with a background in factoring. It said the buyer would take over all ING’s Russian activities and staff and continue to serve customers under a new brand.
The Kremlin has put heavy restrictions on western companies trying to divest from Russia after it launched its war on Ukraine, often rejecting foreign asset sales unless they came at steep discounts.
ING said it had reduced lending to Russian clients by more than 75 per cent since the invasion in February 2022. It added that it would continue to reduce its offshore exposure to Russian clients, booked by ING entities outside Russia, which it said was €1bn at the end of September.
