By Ivan Anderzhanov
US banking giant Morgan Stanley has offloaded its mortgage unit in Russia more than two years after first putting it on the block.
The bank had been looking to dispose of its City Mortgage Bank since 2008 after the global credit crunch wreaked havoc on the countrys' property sector and killed the market for new house loans.
Top ten lender Orient Express bank, which is partly owned by banking tycoon Igor Kim, has bought a 100 percent stake the lender for an undisclosed fee.
City Mortgage bank with current equity capital of 2 billion roubles ($63.94 million) and offices in 23 regions was bought by the U.S. heavyweight in 2006 in order to enter the Russian market that at that time enjoyed a double-digit growth.
Morgan Stanley first arrived in Moscow back in 1994 when it started building a M&A and capital markets business. The bank diversified into mortgages with the acquisition in 2006 of City Mortgage Bank as part of an expansion into residential mortgage markets in the UK and Italy.
David Spector, head of Morgan Stanley’s European residential mortgage business said at the time: “Russian economic fundamentals are strong and a robust and growing mortgage market is supported by recent securitisation and creditor-friendly legislation."
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