Balchug Capital completes acquisition of Goldman Sachs` Russian unit

ArmInfo.  Armenian investment company Balchug  Capital reports the closing of the deal to acquire Goldman Sachs Bank LLC, a Russian bank controlled by the Goldman Sachs group. It was previously announced that the parties had entered into a purchase and sale agreement and received official permission to complete the transaction. This was stated in the company's press release.

Meanwhile, as reported by RBC, the investment fund, in accordance with the terms of the deal, acquired the bank with the current license, but the credit institution will continue to operate under a new name.

According to RBC, according to an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Balchug Capital CJSC became the owner of a 100 percent stake in Goldman Sachs Bank on April 23. The nominal value of the share is 1.45 billion rubles. The agency reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin in late January allowed Balchug Capital to acquire Goldman Sachs Bank LLC, and in early April, shares in seven Russian energy companies from Goldman Sachs, which announced  the suspension of business in Russia after the start of the military operation in Ukraine. These are shares previously owned by Goldman Sachs in Inter RAO, Gazprom, Rosneft, NOVATEK, Surgutneftegaz, LUKOIL and Tatneft, as well as Rostelecom and Novolipetsk Metallurgical  Plant (NLMK).

The American company also got rid of shares in a number of Russian companies, including the owner of the real estate rental and trading service CIAN PLC, and reduced its stake in HeadHunter Group PLC, the owner of the personnel selection service HeadHunter.

The Balchug Capital fund (formerly Copperstone Capital) is an  investment firm headquartered in Yerevan, founded in 2010 by David Amaryan. Previously, it mainly specialized in real estate.

For example, in 2023, the fund acquired the Metropolis shopping and entertainment center from American investors, and in December 2024, the Syktyvkar Plywood Mill, one of the largest plywood manufacturers in Russia.

According to the Balchug Capital press release, as part of its  investment activities, Balchug Capital provides support to  international investors who have decided to leave the Russian market. 

As RBC writes, the Balchug Capital Fund (formerly Copperstone Capital) manages assets worth over $2 billion. It was created in 2010 by brothers Vardan and David Amaryan. Before that, David Amaryan worked for five years at the Troika Dialog investment company, founded by entrepreneur Ruben Vardanyan. Let us recall that in February of this year, the latest report of the Eurasian Bank (EDB)   stated that the deal to acquire the Moscow TD Metropolis in 2023 by the Armenian investment company Balchug Capital for $700 million was one of the largest investments in the Eurasian region. The report noted that it was thanks to this deal that Armenia showed significant growth in mutual accumulated investments with a share of 1.8% in the Eurasian region. As a result, mutual FDI of Armenia with the countries of the region increased from $62 million in 2022 to $841 million by the end of the first half of 2024. The growth was more than 13.5 times or more than 80% of the total volume of accumulated  FDI of Armenia in the region. It was emphasized that this project has become the largest in terms of volume among new deals launched over the past two years in the Eurasian region.