On January 16, 2020, the Deposit Guarantee Fund is holding an auction to sell the VAB Bank PJSC assets. At a lot price of UAH 5,858.95 million, it can be sold 5 times cheaper, although Oleg Bakhmatyuk, the bank ex-owner, offers to repay about UAH 8 billion of the bank's debt

The Deposit Guarantee Fund announced the tenders according to the Dutch auction model at the web site of the Firts Financial Network Ukraine LLC, where it plans selling the VAB Bank assets. Accordingly, the information is published on the DGF web page. The lot consists of 113 loans and 3 receivable items of 61 legal entities - agricultural enterprises, 59 of which are active. 90 loans are pledged by the National Bank of Ukraine, writes the publication Ukranews.

The lot consists of the following objects:

- sanatorium and servicing buildings in the Ivano-Frankivsk region (total area - 5001 sq. m, security sum under the contract - UAH 443.5 million);

- property complex (agro-industrial complex with related facilities, area - 10,399 sq. m, collateral - UAH 335,300,000), property complex (area - 2783 sq. m, collateral - UAH 71,500,000), production base (area - 768.7 sq. m, collateral - UAH 19.2 million) in Ivano-Frankivsk region;

- commercial property with an area of 22893 sq. m in the Cherkasy region (collateral - UAH 81,900,000);

- integral property complex with a total area of 29,230 sq. m in the Ivano-Frankivsk region (collateral - UAH 39,400,000);

- confectionery workshop with an area of 580 sq. m in the Ivano-Frankivsk region (collateral - UAH 27.9 million).

This is an auction to lower, with the lot announced initial cost of of UAH 5.86 Bn., it can be sold five times cheaper - UAH 1.17 Bn. This is exactly the declared minimum selling price. As practice shows, at such auctions most lots are sold at the lowest price - at a discount that sometimes reaches 98-99% of the initial cost. Meanwhile, the state can receive a full repayment of about UAH 8 billion, because Oleg Bakhmatyuk, the VAB Bank ex-owner, has repeatedly offered to return the bank's debts to the state through a restructuring mechanism, but the NBU and the Deposit Guarantee Fund are still silent on these initiatives.

Recall that last fall, the NABU opened the so-called Pisaruk-Bakhmatyuk case concerning the NBU's having refinanced the VAB Bank during the 2014 financial and economic crisis in Ukraine. The official expertise of the collateral assessments, the Deposit Guarantee Fund for individuals conclusions and the NBU statements refute the NABU's allegations publicly put forward against Oleg Bakhmatyuk. The bank had spent the refinancing funds and exclusively for payments to depositors under the NBU strict control, which refutes the NABU's accusations of allegedly misuse the NBU's stabilization loan. Besides, the bank ex-owner has never objected the bank's debts repayment. He himself initiated it according to the state authorized procedure.