Here’s a chance to watch an exclusive video from the Cabinet of Ministers, where a representative of our investors, Tim Collins from Ripplewood Holding, offers comments and answers questions from journalists. The video was taped on September 16, when the Latvian government voted to sell the state’s shares in Citadele to an international investor group with experience in the banking sector. Collins is the founder of the US investment holding company Ripplewood Holding LLC.
After the meeting, Collins said that he very much appreciates the Citadele Bank’s positive achievements and its ability to post good results even under difficult market circumstances. He praised bank managers for their successes and said that Citadele can become an important player at the local and also regional level. Collins went on to say that it is important for the investors to ensure that the bank continues to grow in all business segments, including client services, the aim being to attract more clients to the bank.
“We expect the bank to continue to grow and to become a regional leader,” said Collins. “First of all we will make use of opportunities in Latvia, but we also see a chance to develop at the regional level.
Collins emphasised the fact that the investment will be not just in the bank, but also in Latvia’s economy. The plan is to offer a long-term investment, possibly increasing the bank’s equity capital un future. Collins said that capital from his family and his colleagues will be used to purchase the shares.
Ripplewood Holdings LLC was established in New York in 1995. It manages for than USD 10 billion in capital, mostly making investments in the United States, Japan and Europe. The company invests in dozens of sectors, including finance and telecommunications. One of the best known transactions involved the purchase of the debt of Japan Telecom and the development of the Shinsei Bank in Japan. In 1999, Ripplewood bought the bankrupt Long Term Credit Bank, which had been burdened by toxic debt, and renamed it the Shinsei Bank. Shinsei became the first foreign-owned bank in Japan. Today it has assets of EUR 67 billion, a profit of EUR 300 million, 2.5 million active clients, and more than 5,000 employees.
In 2006, Ripplewood Holdings spent USD 230 million to purchase 18.7% of shares in the Egyptian Commercial International Bank (CIB) that had been owned by the country’s largest bank, the Egyptian National Bank. Ripplewood was the first American company to become involved in the Egyptian banking sector, and it was represented in the transaction by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, who served as a senior advisor for the deal.