Sberbank to pay $1.25 billion for Troika: report

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Sberbank SBER03.MM, Russia's largest lender, has agreed to buy Moscow investment bank Troika Dialog for $1.25 billion, the Vedomosti business daily reported on Wednesday, citing sources close to the deal.

Sberbank Chief Executive German Gref and Troika Chairman Ruben Vardanyan have agreed to value the bank at 150 percent of the bank's capital, equal to $1.25 billion, the newspaper said.

Vardanyan told Reuters no final agreement had been reached.

"We will not announce a deal today and we are not planning to," the chairman told Reuters at the Troika Dialog investment conference in Moscow.

Sberbank has long been seeking to diversify its financial operations away from traditional lending and depository services by developing its own investment bank.

Sources close to the state-owned lender told Reuters in January the acquisition was imminent, though they did not say how much Sberbank would pay for Troika.

Vardanyan on Thursday said the $1.25 billion mentioned in the press was incorrect, declining to give more details.

The sources told the newspaper Sberbank will initially buy a controlling stake, rising to 100 percent within three years.

One source said that Sberbank would initially buy 80 percent of Troika, 36.4 percent from Standard Bank (SBKJ.J) and 43.6 percent from Vardanyan and other Troika shareholders.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries and Toni Vorobyova, writing by Alfred Kueppers; Editing by David Hulmes)