UPDATE 3-Russian tycoon report moves European banks' stocks
(Rewrites, adds new report, Nafta comment, updates shares)
MOSCOW, June 11 (Reuters) - A report that Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov is interested in buying stakes in major European banks and wants other tycoons to join him briefly lifted shares in several major European banks on Wednesday.
Kommersant business daily, quoting sources, said Kerimov has been selling his Russian assets, including stakes in the country's biggest bank Sberbank (SBER03.MM) and gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM), to buy shares in Deutsche (DBKGn.DE), UBS (UBSN.VX), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX).
Shares in Deutsche and UBS rose by 2 percent on the report but later fell back along with other financial stocks. Deutsche closed 1.3 down, UBS fell 3.8 percent and Credit Suisse 0.6 percent. The DJ Stoxx bank index .SX7P weakened 2.8 percent.
One source in a major investment bank told Kommersant that Kerimov, Russia's eighth-richest man and a member of the upper house of the Russian parliament, owned 3 percent of Deutsche at the end of last year.
"Kerimov now continues to increase his stake in Deutsche Bank and plans to take it to 9 percent," a source familiar with Kerimov's plans told Kommersant. Other sources said Kerimov's holdings in other banks amounted to about 1 percent.
Deutsche Bank said it was aware of only two shareholders with stakes of more than 3 percent, British bank Barclays and French insurer AXA. The spokesman declined further comment on the report.
A Deutsche spokesman in Moscow said the bank was obliged to disclose when someone buys more than 3 percent of the shares. "We have not made such disclosures," he said.
One news report quoted an official close to Kerimov's investment vehicle, Nafta Moskva, denying the Kommersant report and saying Kerimov had no plans to own 9 percent of Deutsche Bank, and nor had he sold Gazprom and Sberbank shares.
A senior executive at Nafta Moskva dismissed this report, however, and said the firm would not comment on the issue. Another person close to Nafta said Kerimov was a passive shareholder in Nafta and did not take operational decisions.
OTHER TYCOONS
Kommersant sources said Kerimov was discussing plans to buy stakes in Western banks with other tycoons.
Top Russian officials recently called on businessmen to buy Western assets, which have been losing value due to turbulence in financial markets.
Oil-rich Russia does not yet have its own sovereign wealth fund capable of large-scale private equity investment. However, tycoons who made fortunes during hasty privatisations in the 90s, often act with Kremlin blessing.
Kerimov, 42, was born in Russia's mainly Muslim region of Dagestan near the troubled region of Chechnya. He is married with three children and rarely speaks to the media.
Kerimov, who headed a mid-sized bank in Moscow in the 1990s, stepped up the business ladder when he bought 55 percent of oil trader Nafta Moskva for $50 million in October 1998, shortly after the financial crisis.
In 2001 Nafta Moskva lost its major client, oil firm SurgutNefteGaz (SNGS.MM), pulled out of the oil trading business and started investing in banking, energy, communications, metals and media firms as well as in real estate development projects.
The value of Kerimov's investments soared during the Russian economic boom that followed the 1998 crisis. At one point Kerimov held about 6 percent of Sberbank and 4.5 percent of Gazprom. Forbes estimated Kerimov's fortune at $17.5 billion.
Kommersant said investment bankers contracted by Kerimov had been selling his assets since the start of the year. One banker contacted by Reuters said he believed Kerimov was behind large sales of Gazprom and Sberbank stock.
Russia's top silver miner and third-largest gold producer, Polymetal (PMTLq.L), said last month Kerimov was in talks with a "variety of possible counterparties" about the sale of his controlling stake in the company.
Kerimov was once a member of Vladimir Zhirinovsky's ultranationalist LDPR party as well as one of its main sponsors. He left the LDPR in April 2007 to join the pro-Kremlin United Russia party amid rumours about falling out of favour with authorities. (Additional reporting by Dmitry Sergeyev; Editing by Quentin Bryar)
