ONEXIM Bank

United Export-Import Bank

Company type	Open Joint Stock Company
Founded	1993 in Moscow, Russia
Defunct	2000
Fate	Merged with Rosbank
Headquarters	Moscow , Russia

ONEXIM Bank (Russian: ОНЭ́КСИМ-ба́нк) (United Export-Import Bank) was a Russian joint-stock commercial bank. It was founded in 1993 in Moscow. In 2000, it was merged into Rosbank.

The shareholders of "Rosbank" and "ONEXIM Bank" approved the reorganization of AKB "Rosbank" by merging "ONEXIM Bank" into it at a general meeting on September 14, 2000. The chairman of the board of "ONEXIM Bank," Mikhail Prokhorov, was included in the board of directors of the reorganized "Rosbank," as approved by the shareholders.

"ONEXIM Bank" completed the restructuring of its debt to creditors on July 3, 2000, paying them 105 million dollars. Mikhail Prokhorov, when creating the investment fund "ONEXIM Group" in May 2007, emphasized that he named his fund after the bank of the same name, from which he and his partner Vladimir Potanin started their business in the early 1990s. According to him, the name "ONEXIM Group" has a hidden meaning: "despite attempts to declare 'ONEXIM' bankrupt, it fulfilled all its obligations to creditors."

History

See also: Privatization in Russia

The early years of "ONEXIM Bank" were not marked by public attention and were characterized by intense efforts to build capital and expand its client base among the largest Russian enterprises. However, by the summer of 1995, this credit institution established itself as a serious player in the domestic financial and economic field. During the Loans for shares scheme of 1995, "ONEXIM Bank" and its partner, MFK Bank, acquired state-owned stakes in the oil company "Sidanko", RAO "Norilsk Nickel", OAO "Novorossiysk Shipping Company", Novolipetsk Steel, as well as OAO "North-Western Shipping Company".

A computer analysis of the transactions conducted by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation revealed that the bank had engaged in speculation in the GKO (Russian government short-term bonds) market (which was one of the causes of the 1998 default).

By the time of the August crisis in 1998, "ONEXIM Bank" ranked 346th in the list of the largest global credit institutions and held the fifth position among banks in Central and Eastern Europe. According to the British magazine The Banker, "ONEXIM Bank" ranked 12th in the world in terms of capital adequacy, and the prestigious magazine Euromoney named it among the best Russian banks three times (in 1995, 1996, and 1998).

However, the decision of the Russian government to "freeze" payments on the domestic public debt and the subsequent rapid devaluation of the national currency severely undermined the financial health of "ONEXIM Bank." The bank's total debt before the crisis was approximately 1.7 billion dollars, and by the time its license was revoked (June 28, 1999), the actual capital deficit had reached 1 billion dollars.

Nevertheless, the diligent work of "ONEXIM Bank" shareholders and management with foreign creditors led to the signing of a framework agreement on the restructuring of its debt by two groups of creditors on February 16, 2000, which was later joined by almost all of the bank's creditors. On July 3, 2000, the Moscow Arbitration Court terminated the bankruptcy proceedings of "ONEXIM Bank," and in December of the same year, the bank's restructuring culminated in its merger with "Rosbank."

The complete absence of external sources of financing for the debt settlement process (except for assistance from shareholders) led to the development and implementation of a complex scheme for exchanging claims and assets, which, although not able to satisfy all creditor claims, achieved the maximum financial result within the given political and economic conditions.

In 2000, by decision of the shareholders, the bank's license was annulled, and the bank was merged into AKB "Rosbank".