Russia VTB Sells EADS Stake for $1.43 Billion

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian bank VTB (VTBR.MM) has sold its 5 percent stake in European aerospace firm EADS(EAD.PA) to Russia's Bank of Development, VTB said on Thursday, while a source close to the buyer valued the deal at $1.43 billion.

The sale, which was approved by the Bank of Development's board on Dec. 20, ends an investment that drew fire from investors during VTB's (VTBR.MM) $8 billion stock market float earlier this year.

State-controlled VTB said in a statement the sale had been made to optimise the balance sheet and focus on core business activities.

The source said the price paid for the EADS (EAD.PA) stake was 24.23 euros per share, a premium to Monday's closing level of 22.56 euros and valuing the 41 million shares at around $1.43 billion.

That compares with a valuation for the stake in VTB's accounts of $1.402 billion at the end of 2006 and $1.236 billion at the end of September, suggesting that VTB may be able to book a one-off gain from the sale.

"The stake price is 2 percent above the valuation in the year-end accounts for 2006, and 16 percent above the estimate at Sept. 30, 2007," said Svetlana Kovalskaya, an analyst at Renaissance Capital.

"That gives a gain of nearly $200 million, which is significant in relation to the profits we are forecasting."

VTB Chief Executive Andrei Kostin has said that the newly formed state United Aircraft Corporation will be the final buyer of the stake, which Russia bought last year hoping to win a strategic say in EADS.

EADS's core shareholders, France and Germany, rebuffed that approach but an eventual purchase by the United Aircraft Corporation would create minority cross-shareholdings that may serve as a basis for a future partnership.

EADS owns a 10 percent stake in Irkut IKRT.MM, a maker of the Sukhoi fighter jet and one of several companies being folded into the United Aircraft Corporation.

The state-owned Bank of Development has recently been rebranded and recapitalized, and is likely to hold on to the EADS stake until the United Aircraft Company is financially strong enough to pay for it.

(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya, Writing by Douglas Busvine, Editing by David Cowell)